


A.D.D

by papi_chulo



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band), All Time Low, Of Mice & Men (Band), Pierce the Veil, Sleeping With Sirens
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Zombies, Eventual Smut, Fluff, Minor Character Death, Minor Injuries, Minor Violence, Multi, Strangers to Lovers, Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-23
Updated: 2015-06-21
Packaged: 2018-03-14 18:48:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 24,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3421613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/papi_chulo/pseuds/papi_chulo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"i blame it on my own supply"</p><p>The zombie apocalypse. </p><p>Everyone knew it was going to happen eventually they just didn't think it would happen so soon.   When you get bitten, the venom from the zombie virus makes its way to your brain, this venom can do one of two things. It can turn you into a zombie, which is the most likely outcome, or it will simply alter you brain, causing you to develop some form of mental disorder.  </p><p>When Luke gets bitten he gets lucky, he develops A.D.D otherwise known as attention deficit disorder. Could this help him survive or lead him to get bitten again and not be so lucky?</p><p>"so blame it on my a.d.d baby"</p><p>*   *   *</p><p>will contain strong language, some sexual content, some violence and gore and some really childish adult humor.</p><p>slightly inspired by 'sail' by awolnation</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. this is how i show my love

**Author's Note:**

> so new lashton book, yayy. this is on my wattpad (drvgsandnarcotxcs) as a Michael/OFC book but I was like 'omg i'll make it a lasthon and put it on ao3' and here we are. so if you see it say the name Rebel anywhere it means Luke and she should obviously be he. i do go through each chapter a few times and check to make sure i've edited it all but sometimes i miss a few things so if you see something then tell me :D also michael needs to stop dying his damn hair cause i can't keep up with it in my fics like he ends up having 10 different hair colours by like chapter 10 D:
> 
> anywhore enjoy

attention deficit disorder

n. Abbr. ADD A syndrome, usually diagnosed in childhood, characterized by a persistent pattern of impulsiveness, a short attentionspan, and often hyperactivity, and interfering especially with academic, occupational, and social performance.

 

* * *

 

I sat on the wooden park bench, the cold breeze nipping at my bare legs through the rips in my black jeans. I pulled my ebony leather jacket tighter around my body hoping it might protect me from the cold slightly.

"Stupid, stupid boy." I muttered to myself, hugging my torso, the air so cold I could see my breath

My boyfriend Taylor had been cheating on me for the past six months and I even knew about it, but I refused to believe it until I saw him in my bed in my apartment with another woman. That did it for me; I didn't want to be in a dishonest relationship with an unloyal man. I left the apartment, not before letting them know I was there though. I made a show of leaving, slamming the door to the bedroom, slamming every door in the house until eventually slamming the front door and walking out.

My phone began vibrating in my hand and 'The Big Bang' by Rock Mafia began playing to alert me that someone was calling me. Of course, it was Taylor.  
I wiped my eyes and sniffled slightly before answering and holding the phone against my ear.

"What?" I said, my voice cracking before I finished the word.

"I'm so sorry, babe, it was a mistake, I didn't know what I was-" Taylor's deep voice sounded from the other side of the receiver.

"Don't try to tell me you didn't know what you were doing," I began, feeling a presence beside me, "You knew what you were doing all the other times you cheated on me in the past six months."

"Babe..." He trailed off.

"Don't call me that, you've got half an hour to get your shit and get out of my apartment, if there is any evidence of you or that blonde bimbo ever being in my apartment I will end you." I hung up, putting my phone in my pocket and looking to the side to see who was next to me.

A man, he looked around the age of eighteen with dark blonde, curly hair and tan skin. 

He looked as if he was about to say something but I cut him off when I felt something wet drip down my face, "Do I look like shit?"

"Slightly." He chuckled; he had a strong Australian accent.

I sighed and wiped under my eyes again, "I'm Luke by the way."

"I'm Ashton" He smiled, "This may sound weird but you don't happen to know a place I could stay for a little while."

"Um, I have a spare room in my apartment. You could stay there when my ex hurries up and gets his ass out of my house." I offered.

"If it's not any trouble.." 

"No it's fine, as long as you don't try to murder me or anything." I laughed slightly.

Ashton laughed along with me when my phone rang; once again, Taylor.

I answered and immediately said, "Are you and that tramp out of my apartment yet?"

"Yes." Taylor groaned.

"Good."

"Come back, I need to talk to you in person." With that, he hung up.

I stood up off the bench, "Come on then."

 

* * *

 

Stood outside my house was none other than Taylor. When he saw me he smiled but that smile soon faded when he saw the blonde-haired man walking beside me.

"Bringing new guys home already?" Taylor smirked as I stopped in front of him.

"Oh don’t act like you weren’t bringing girls home throughout our whole relationship." I shrugged.

I was about to turn and walk away but I froze. I froze because what was behind Taylor would shape the future of humanity.


	2. i made it in my mind because

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so there might be a few mistakes in this 'cause i had to change a lot of names because i'm changing all the relationships around and shit.

"Tay, behind you." I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

"What are you talking about?" Taylor asked, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. 

Taylor slowly turned around and looked behind him, his blank expression turning to one of surprise for a split second before the zombie lifted an arm and hit Taylor around his head. The black haired man collapsed to the floor as I stumbled backwards into Ashton's chest in shock.

"Oh my God." I gasped.

"Don't use the Lord's name in vain." Ashton chuckled to himself before grabbing me by the elbow and dragging me into my house.

"What the hell was that?" I asked, still completely flabbergasted - that's a funny word - by what had happened.

"A zombie apocalypse. I should've seen this coming, C said this was gonna happen, I just didn't think it would be so soon. We're stuck in England and soon the whole human race will be dying out." Ashton explained, grabbing a bag from the island in the kitchen and filling it with cans of food and bottles of water.

"Who's C?" I asked, deciding it was a smart idea to grab another bag and begin filling it with food and drink.

"Her name's Courtney, she's a friend of mine, she seems to believe that she can see into the future, anyway, she's up in Manchester with two of my other friends, Michael and Calum and my twin sister, Rosa. It'd be best if we could get to Manchester." The blonde haired boy said as he picked up a third bag.

I stopped him, "How do I even know I can trust you, I met you like what, an hour ago?"

"Look, you just have to trust me, C will probably call me in a minute." 

As if on cue, Ashton's phone rang, he answered it and put it on speaker.

"Hello?"

"Ashton, I told you the damn apocalypse was gonna happen!" The voice on the other end of the phone yelled, I'm assuming it was Courtney's voice.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it, would it be safe to get the train up to Manchester?" Ashton asked.

"Um, probably, there's one leaving in around twenty minutes, let's just hope the undead don't get there before you do." Courtney concluded before hanging up.

"That was brief." I stated.

"No, you don't say." Ashton said, the sarcasm in his voice almost impossible to miss.

"Shouldn't I change? I mean, I'm wearing jeans and a leather jacket, this is the most inconvenient outfit for the apocalypse ever." I motioned to what I was wearing.

"No, it's fine let's go, where's the nearest train station?"

 

* * *

 

We had boarded the train without any problems and we were now on our way to Manchester. 

"So, how did this even happen?" I asked.

"The apocalypse, you mean?" Ashton asked in return.

I nodded.

"It was probably something to do with radioactivity in the ground, something like that anyway. You'll have to ask C she'll know." He shrugged.

"Okay..." I trailed off, "What about when we get to Manchester, what happens then?"

"We survive." 

"Well, that's not vague or anything." I retorted.

Ashton rolled his eyes and for the rest of the trip we spoke about our lives, anything to distract us from what was currently happening.

"Dude, I just realised, how did we even get a train if the apocalypse is happening?" I questioned.

"Because it's only just started, by tomorrow the trains and airplanes would've shut down." 

 

* * *

 

The train station at Manchester was completely abandoned except for a few bodies of the undead led on the floor and two boys and two girls. 

"That's them" Ashton pointed at them.

I nodded as we stepped off of the train, we were the only passengers.

The red-haired girl was the first to introduce herself, "Hey, I'm Rosa." 

As she smiled, her bright green eyes sparkled and she would play with the two rings she had pierced through her lips.

"Hey, I'm Luke." I smiled, shaking her hand.

The tall green-haired boy stepped forward and held out his hand, "I'm Michael."

I shook his hand and said, "Hey." 

As he stepped back I noticed he was holding hands with the girl with black hair to his right.

This girl, who was slightly shorter than Michael and had bright blue eyes and pale skin stepped forward and said, "I'm Courtney."

"Hey." I smiled and shook her hand.

The last boy stepped forward and he had dark brown eyes and very dark brown hair that was so dark it appeared black. He held out his hand and said, "Calum."

I shook his hand and introduced myself before Ashton said that we should probably get back to their apartment before nightfall.

Ashton walked beside Rosa and Michael ahead of Calum, Courtney and me.

"How did the apocalypse even start?" I asked, breaking the comfortable silence that had settled between the three of us.

"I don't know for sure, but I'm going to assume that it was probably a leak of nuclear gas from a military base, probably the one down in Devon, it probably leaked through the air to the nearest cementary and then gradually moved up to England, Wales and Scotland." Courtney began to explain her theory.

"Do you think there's a cure?" Calum questioned.

"Probably, there may be a certain blood type that may be immune to the infection. I've heard that some people have been bitten in Devon and got out alive but they had some form of mental disorder, the most common disorder to develop from being bitten I believe is schizophrenia or bipolar disorder." The black haired girl continued to explain as we got nearer to their apartment complex.

"How do you know so much?" I asked, completely blown away by her knowledge.

"I attended Manchester University for a year before I dropped out, but whilst I was there I studied biology and science and there was a group of me and a few other people who felt like the zombie apocalypse would happen some time soon so we studied it, checking people's blood cells for signs of chemicals. What would really help is if we could capture a zombie, I could run some tests and see what is causing the infection and potentially find a cure. I could collect samples of all of our blood and see if any blood matches up to a cure or the zombie's blood for that matter." Courtney kept rambling about finding a cure and before I knew it we were at their apartment.

"C, the key?" Michael interrupted her.

"Oh yeah." She chuckled sheepishly and got a key from her pocket before unlocking the door to the apartment.

Once we got into the apartment I found that there were only three bedrooms, Courtney then told me that I'd have to room with Ashton as she and Michael shared a room and so did Rosa and Calum.

I sat down on one of the beds in the room I'd be staying in, "We could go out tonight and get a zombie for you." I suggested to Courtney who’d came in to put sheets on the other bed

"That's dangerous, it'd be better to do it in the day, they're weaker in sunlight I've found." Courtney explained to me.

"Well, it's still light out, we could go now."

"Let's go then." She smirked, pulling two metal baseball bats out from the wardrobe.


	3. i blame it on my a.d.d baby

"So, is the whole apocalypse gonna be this dragging?" I asked, bored out of my mind.

Courtney and I were sitting on a park bench just outside of their apartment complex, so if anything went wrong we could quickly rush inside. We were currently waiting for a zombie to show up but we'd been sat out here for at least half an hour and fuck all has happened. There was no noise except for the sound of me hitting the metal baseball bat that Courtney had supplied me with against the floor and occasionally the sound of us making small talk.

"Probably not," The blue eyed girl sighed, "The zombie infection has only just begun to spread, I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that there's probably only twenty zombies in Manchester at the moment, not even that probably. As time goes on the amount of humans will lower and the amount of zombies will rise."

"No really." I said, sarcasm dripping from my voice.

Courtney glared at me before rolling her eyes and shaking her head. Suddenly, there was a groan behind us and I barely had time to react before I felt something biting my neck. Almost instantly the metallic smell of blood hit me and I screamed. Courtney raised her bat and swung it at the zombie that was feasting on my neck, easily knocking it away by at least 3 feet.

The guys upstairs definitely heard my scream. The door to the apartments swung open and Ashton, Calum, Rosa and Michael came rushing out. Calum and Michael walked over to Courtney to help her tame the zombie and bring it inside for testing.

Rosa and Ashton came over to me, picking me up and supporting me so I could walk inside. They pretty much carried me towards the elevator, I moaned as I rested my head on Rosa's shoulder, the pain in my neck almost unbearable.

"We'll take you up to C's lab, she'll be up in a minute so he can clean your wound, seeing as you haven't turned yet I'm going to assume you're brain has been altered in some way." Rosa's soft voice explained to me, helping me to stop panicking.

As we exited the elevator, there was the sound of someone running up stairs, probably Calum, Michael and Courtney as we were using the only elevator in the building. We were a floor lower than the guy's apartment so I'm guessing Ash had rented out another apartment down here to use as a lab. I stumbled over my feet a few times as we walked towards a door, where we stood waiting, I'm assuming for Courtney as she probably had the key.

Michael burst through a door at the end of the corridor, running towards us, Calum and Courtney right behind him carrying the zombie that had bitten me only a few minutes ago. Courtney stood in front of the door, holding the zombies legs with one hand, the muscles in her arm tensing, and unlocking the door with the other.

The zombie was still alive and was writhing round as C and Calum carried him into the apartment, which was just one large room. They placed him down on a metal bench and quickly strapped him down with the restraints which were attached to the bench. Rosa and Michael led me over to another metal bench which, unlike the other one, had blankets and pillows on.

Rosa let go of me and allowed Ashton to pick me up and set me down on the bench, "Thank you." I whispered.

Ashton smiled kindly in response before hastily moving out of the way so Courtney could walk past him. She put on a pair of glasses that he pulled out from his pocket. The black haired girl walked over to a sink and thoroughly washed her hands, before pulling a pair of white latex gloves on and grabbing a jar of a clear liquid. She picked up a bucket and set it down beside the bench I was on.

"What's that?" I asked, pointing weakly to the jar of liquid.

"Sterile solution, I'm going to clean out that bite, as you haven't turned already you've definitely gotten some form of mental disorder, I'll run some tests to find out what. I'm going to bandage it up aswell so you don't get some form of infection from dirt and bacteria." Courtney explained, her face and voice completely serious.

I nodded and immediately regretted it as I winced from the pain it caused in my neck. Courtney looked at me sympathetically and walked over and opened a cupboard before pulling out a needle and filling it with something. I opened my mouth to ask what it was but before I could get a word out she said, "Morphine, to deal with the pain."

I smiled gratefully as she came over and injected the morphine into my hand, "That'll start working soon, tilt your head to the right slightly."

I did as she said and winced as she began pouring the solution over my wound with no warning. It was like doing the salt and ice challenge, with at least twenty ice cubes. It stung like nothing I've ever felt before.

This went on for what felt like an eternity until he began drying my neck and bandaging it.

"Do you think you can stand?" She asked me.

I nodded before slowly sitting up and taking a few deep breaths before standing up. My legs buckled a little bit so Ashton quickly lifted one of my arms over his shoulder and allowed me to lean on him as we walked over to a flight of stairs. I tripped over my own feet at least twice as I made my way slowly up the stairs with the assistance of Ashton and Calum who had just swooped in to support me on my other side. As we reached the top of the stairs I realize we were now in their apartment. I tried to take some of my weight off of Calum and Ashton so their arms wouldn't ache as we walked into another room. 

It was a small box room but it was big enough to have a comfortable looking bed that resembled a hospital bed and an IV drip. Calum and Ash led me over to the bed and as I led down on it they let go of me, I took a few deep breaths as I relaxed slightly. 

"You're gonna have to stay in here overnight, I'll come in and check on you in the morning, there's some morphine in this IV drip and you've got a button, just press it when you start feeling the pain return and you'll be given some more, but after a while the button will stop working meaning you've been given more than the legal amount of morphine that can be administered." Courtney explained as she sorted out the IV drip, placing a new bag of clear liquid that I figured to be morphine and preparing a needle on the end of the tube.

She asked for my right hand and I placed it on the bar beside me, wincing ever so slightly as she pierced the needle into one of the veins on my hand.

"If you can't get to sleep then call for me and I'll come in and give you a sleeping pill." Courtney smiled sympathetically, pulling off the latex gloves she had on and chucking them in the bin before pulling off her glasses and shaking out her hair.

"Sleeping pills don't work on me." I chuckled slightly, my voice hoarse.

"Want some water?" Ash asked, noticing how rough and croaky my voice was.

"Yeah please." I smiled, coughing to exaggerate the fact that I was dehydrated.

Ashton and Courtney left the room and Ash came back shortly with a glass of water. 

"Thanks." I praised as I took the glass from him and gulped down around half the water.

"C can run some tests tomorrow to see whether you contracted any kind of mental disorder and she'll take blood samples from all of us and the zombie to compare and analyze." He explained, his voice gentle and soft.

I nodded and thanked him again for everything.

"Are you okay, like, emotionally and mentally, 'cause being bitten by a zombie would shit anyone up." He asked, looking concerned.

"I'm fine, I guess I'm a little shocked but other than that I'm alright."

"Okay, get some rest, you need it." He smiled before standing up and pausing.

Ashton looked like he was contemplating something; he took a deep breath before he leaned down and gave me a quick peck on my lips before walking out of the  
room and shutting the door behind him, the room now in complete darkness except from the lamp beside the bed.

I was left in complete confusion as I led down and tried to go to sleep.


	4. this is how an angel dies

I groaned as I groggily opened one eye before the other. I blinked a few times to clear my blurry vision and ran a hand through my messy black hair. The white door opened and Ashton stepped in wearing a dark grey Iron Maiden shirt and some black skinny jeans, with a bandana wrapped around his head and a red flannel shirt around his waist.

He smiled at me, his dimples popping up on his cheeks before he said, "Mornin', how you doin'?"

"Alright, thanks" I smiled at him, "and you?" 

"I'm good thanks," He stepped forward beside my bed and asked, "Can I take a look at your bite?"

"Sure." I smiled slightly, sitting up and tilting my head to the side to make it easier.

Ashton carefully untied the knot at the end of the bandage and began unwrapping it. As the bandage came to an end you could see a little bit of blood on the fabric, which was somewhat expected. When he took the last bit of bandage off from my neck I winced slightly before he leaned in a bit and took a look at it.

He gasped slightly and his eyes widened. "What, what's wrong?" 

"I, how, what? It's gone, well, there's just a scar there now." The blonde haired boy stared at me in wonder, curiosity and astonishment.

"What?" I whispered as Ashton grabbed a hand held mirror and held it up so I could see my neck.

"Oh my God..." I gasped, "But how could it have healed so quickly overnight?" I asked.

"Oh right, you were out for a week." He grimaced.

"A week?!" I yelled.

"Yeah, we were getting worried. Anyway, the apocalypse has gotten bigger and lots of people have just locked themselves inside their houses. Shops still stock their shelves but once that's done the workers go home, they're basically welcoming people to come and steal their shit. Also, Courtney should run some tests on you, your wound healed pretty quickly and you obviously aren't a zombie so you've either gotten off with nothing, or a mental disorder. She thinks you might be the blood type that's immune to the virus but we can't be too sure yet.”

"Oh, well, that's cool I guess." I shrugged slightly, not all too bothered with the situation, if my wounds heal quicker that's beneficial to me and that's all that matters.

Ashton laughs before placing the mirror on the nightstand and sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Shouldn't we like, go out and try to find people, not to take them in or anything but to get allies, so we have people who'll look out for us?" I suggested.

"That's a good point, I just don't want to make false friends." He sighed, running his hands through his unruly hair.

"Or we could go out for more supplies, I mean, we clearly aren't gonna have enough food and water to last an entire apocalypse." I shrugged, standing up slowly so I  
didn't get head rush.

I stretched my arms above my head which caused the shirt that I was wearing to rise up slightly. I heard Ashton take in a deep breath and as I looked over at him I  
noticed he was staring at the exposed skin from where my shirt raised up.

"Do you reckon I could borrow someone’s clothes, I feel too smart for an apocalypse." I laughed slightly.

Ashton coughed and shook his head before humming slightly and saying, "Yeah, you can borrow a pair of my joggers and Courtney buys men’s shirts to sleep in sometimes."

He stood up and walked out of the room and into the room that I would be sharing with him.

I sat back down to think about everything. In the course of a week I've been cheated on, a zombie apocalypse has broken out, I've travelled to Manchester, been bit by a zombie and to top it all off I've been kissed by a stranger, kind of, and am severely confused.

Soon Ashton came back with a pair of black jogging bottoms and a large band shirt. 

I shooed him out of the room before pulling on the clothes, the joggers being a bit small on my legs and the top being a perfect fit.

I walked out of the room and felt something hit my face, as I opened my eyes all I could see was black and I began flailing my arms around until Michael walked over and pulled the black fabric off of my face which turned out to be a jacket.

"You wear this on your torso, not your face." He explained, chuckling and running his hands through his hair which was now red.

"When did you dye your hair?" I asked as I pulled the jacket on and caught a white pair of puma hi-tops that Rosa chucked at me.

I sat down on the floor to pull on the shoes as Michael answered me with, "Last night when you were sleeping."

Rosa and Michael laughed before Ashton, Courtney and Calum walked back up with shovels and metal baseball bats. They shared them out and Ashton held out a bat to me but I declined it, quickly standing up and walking to the kitchen. I pulled out all the drawers until I found the one full with cutlery, picking up two large butcher knives and shutting the drawer with my hip.

I walked back out and spun the knives in my hands, "Practiced knife throwing for two years." I explained before the question was actually asked.

"Please do not have bad aim at some point and accidentally hit one of us." Calum chuckled at his own joke.

Ashton pulled the door open and slung one of the duffle bags that sat beside the door over his shoulder, the rest of us doing the same before we all walked out of the door. We took the elevator down to the first floor and Luke stuck his head out of the door and looked both ways before we exited the elevator.

We all walked towards the lobby of the apartment complex, the whole complex in deadly silence creating an eerie atmosphere. The only sound in the hallway being our footsteps and light breathing until someone dressed in all black stepped out from behind a corner and I let out a short, rather un-manly yell out of surprise before I realized that it wasn't a zombie and it was in fact a girl around my age with long brunette hair.

Everyone turned around and raised their weapons but then lowered them and they sighed in relief.

"Jesus Christ Megan." Michael groaned, slapping a hand over his eyes.

I furrowed my brows, slightly confused before the brown-eyed girl said with a smile, "I'm Megan, their neighbour."

I nodded and murmured, "Oh."

"You guys goin' out for supplies?" Megan asked as we all continued walking, the tall girl now accompanying us.

"Yeah." I answered, before saying, "You know, I just realized we have a problem,"

I paused until everyone nodded, waiting for me to continue.

"Do any of us even really know how to wield a weapon of any sort?" 

"You said you practised knife throwing." Calum stated.

"Yeah, I know, I did, but I meant you guys." I coughed.

"I can, I'm undercover for MI6 at the moment because there's supposedly a big gang operation going on in the penthouse of this complex, but now this apocalypse has hit us I suppose I could be of some assistance you guys." Megan spoke up.

Now that she'd mentioned it, I could notice she had the training of someone undercover. She was light footed and blended in, she didn't look suspicious at all and if she didn't tell us, I probably wouldn't have known.

"I went to a shooting range for my birthday once." Michael piped up and Courtney rolled her eyes at his answer before hitting him lightly on the back of his head.

"You probably walked in, took one look at the guns and passed out." Courtney laughed at her own joke.

"So only one of us is actually officially trained to use any weapon of some sort?" I asked again, just to confirm.

Everyone nodded and I lost some of the little hope I held inside that we'd actually get out of this mess. 

"Let's just get to the store yeah?" Rosa spoke up for the first time in this whole conversation.

 

* * *

 

Megan and I walked down the sweets aisle, picking up a few packets of haribos and lollipops. I had two knives in my right hand and Megan had a small heavy pistol in her hand, ready to attack if zombies or humans came at us.

"So you're here 'cause you're undercover researching a gang operation?" I asked.

"Yep, some gang called the Ronin. Apparently they're from America originally but they came over here for whatever reason." She answered me as she picked up a packet of Halloween lollipops.

"Ah right." I answered, trying to juggle one-handed with the sweet packets I had in my left hand.

"There you are!" Someone yelled at the end of the aisle behind us.

I turned around and quickly threw one of my knives at them as I yelled, "Oh my fucking God." 

"Jesus Christ." Ashton gasped as he got back up from dodging the knife, "You are vicious."

I shrugged and said, "Not vicious, alert."

"Anyway, some other guys just came into the store, I have no idea who they are but one of them is called Alex and one called Jack." Ashton explained as he came up to  
us and ripped open one of the sweet packets.

"Well, instead of standing around eating sweets," Megan began, taking the sweet packet from Ashton and shoving it in the backpack on my back along with the other  
packets, "why don't we go have a civilized conversation with the intruders?"

The professional side to her was coming out now as she walked towards the end of the aisle and turned to the entrance where a group of four guys and a girl were standing.

"So, are you with us or against us?" She said as she stood in front of them, her face lacking any emotion and her voice cold and hard.

"Depends if you'll try to kill us or not." One of the guys stepped forward, he had dark brown hair and a bit of a stubble of the same colour.

"I wouldn't say that to someone trained to kill if I were you to be quite honest." I said as I made my way to stand beside Megan and as I stood beside her I managed to get a good look at the girl.

She had long blue hair and she wasn't ghostly pale but she wasn't quite tan either. She was quite tall and quite skinny with black skinny jeans on her legs, a ripped 'Asking Alexandria' shirt on and a leather jacket.

She looked up and gasped and so did I.

"Luke.." She said, taking a small step forward.

"Clarity..." I did the same and when we were face to face with each other we wrapped our arms around each other and just stood there for a while, enjoying each other's company.

"I'm confused." Ashton spoke first.

"This is my sister Clarity." I explained before turning back to Clarity, "Where's mum and dad?"

"I don't know, I was up here in university remember? They haven't picked up their phones though." The blue eyed girl smiled up at me.

"I'm sure they're fine." I smiled back at her before turning to the four guys she was with.

"Oh right," she stepped towards them and began introducing them, "so this is Jack." She pointed to the guy who'd spoken to me earlier.

"This is Alex." She pointed towards the boy with light brown hair stood next to Jack, they looked almost like brothers in some ways.

"Then this is Rian," She pointed to a guy with a shaven head, "and this is Zack." This guy had slightly darker and shorter hair than Alex.

"So, do you think we should all team up? There's strength in numbers." Courtney stepped forward, as if she had appeared from nowhere.

"Yes, but that could attract zombies, especially when the virus breaks out fully over here." Jack said.

Clarity nodded in agreement, "That's true, although, years of video games, movies and books have led up to this moment, I can finally recreate I Am Legend, minus the dog death 'cause that shit was sad."


	5. i blame it on my own supply

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bit of a filler chapter, just like loads of dialogue to get the story moving. this is going to be around 16-20 chapters longs so the main drama shiz will be starting soon and lots of dramatic tingz will be happening involving bombs whooo.

We were back in the apartment now, around a dozen bags full up with random supplies, most of which we probably wouldn't need. Most of the food supplies would probably be gone soon too as Clarity and Jack had already eaten their way through one large bag of cheesy Doritos and was quickly eating packs of pulled pork and chicken curry flavoured crisps.

"So what happens now?" Alex asked.

"What do you mean?" I responded, flipping through today's newspaper, they'd probably stop printing them in a few days when journalists stop turning up for work.

"Well, do we just sit here and do nothing or try to survive?" He elaborated.

Courtney stood up and began to answer, "Well, right now I'd like to run tests on everyone especially Luke and Clarity."

Clarity stood up and stopped C, "Why me?"

"Luke was bitten by a walker but he survived somehow and healed in the space of a week and because you're related I'd like to run tests on both of you. Also, I need to check is Luke has any form of mental disorder as the venom from the virus can cause mental disorders as well as zombifying the body."

Clarity nodded and sat back down, grabbing another packet of crisps.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine, thanks for being a great sister and asking, Clarity." I spoke up sarcastically.

"I've told you this before, you keep talking like that and you're gonna get a slap. Hopefully, the one delivering the slap will be me, unless someone else beats me to it." She responded quickly.

"Violence is not the answer children." Megan said.

"Says the one, you've killed people before." Michael retorted.

"That's different, I've killed people for the safety of the world." 

"Rather full of yourself aren't you?" Clarity chuckled to herself.

"I prefer the word confident." Megan crossed her arms and took a seat on the couch opposite Clarity and Jack.

Clarity scoffed and picked up a plastic box full of mini scotch eggs.

"I'd be careful if I was you, or you'll end up the size of a house." Calum raised his eyebrow and nodded at Clarity.

"She's always been skinny, she'll never put on much weight." I chucked the newspaper down on the coffee table.

"Enough about weight and eating, we need to actually take this seriously." Ashton stepped forward.

"Oh come on. This will probably be over in 2 weeks." Jack rolled his eyes.

"2 years more like." I retorted.

"It's probably just some extreme form of a disease we already have, like cancer." Alex sided with Jack.

"Or Ebola." Clarity snickered.

"Don't even start." I rolled my eyes.

"I'm trying to have a laugh, we're all taking this way to seriously. It's been like a week and we're acting as if this thing is going to be the end of the world. They'll probably just quarantine the affected location and we'll all be fine." Clarity scoffed and put her legs up on the coffee table.

"Oh yeah, a quarantine would be great. If we weren't in the affected fucking area!" I yelled at her.

"Wow, this is like that new dying light game." Jack's eyes widened.

Clarity frowned for a second and looked down at the floor before gasping and saying, "Does the internet still work? Are people still broadcasting on TV?"

"Oh my God, turn on the TV." Michael pointed at the TV.

Ashton quickly picked up a remote and pressed the power button to turn on the TV. It turned on the news and we all sat down to listen to what was being said.

The news reporter's face suddenly turned serious when she said, "Recently there has been an outbreak of an unknown disease in the United Kingdom. It's thought to have been caused by a gas leak from the military base in Devon. The disease has been turning people into zombie-like creatures causing many people to believe that the judgment day that was mentioned in the bible is finally happening. The prime minister, David Cameron, and the President of the United States have agreed to enforce a quarantine on the country to prevent the outbreak from spreading."

At this point I began to zone out and lose concentration. I wasn't sure why this happened but I just couldn't concentrate on what the woman was saying. I must have stayed like that for at least five minutes before I felt a warm hand on my shoulder, snapping me out of whatever daze I was in. I turned my head over my shoulder to see Clarity looking at me with a concerned expression.

"Luke, are you alright?" She frowned.

"It's probably something to do with when he got bitten. You've been zoning out a lot recently." Courtney knelt down in front of me and looked into my eyes.

"Do you reckon she's got that ADD thing?" Clarity knelt down beside Courtney.

"Attention Deficit Disorder?" Courtney raised her eyebrows, "Maybe, he's showing symptoms."

"Yeah that one. Don't you have to like, scan his brain though?" Clarity asked.

"No, I'll do symptom checklists, attention span tests and a physical exam. That should be enough." Courtney stood back up and sat down next to Michael on the sofa.

"So, what do we do now then?" Jack spoke up after around a minute of silence.

"There are still people alive here, like us. They're obviously going to get us out of here before they set up this quarantine." Megan sighed and stood up.

"You don't know that though. The government or whoever's in charge of this are heartless and selfish, you of all people should know that." Clarity argued.

"Of course I know that, but they're not so heartless that they'll let hundreds of innocent people die." Megan stepped forwards.

"There are around 64 million people in the UK, they won't go out of their way to save all of us." Clarity shrugged and leaned back in her seat.

"So, we need to make them notice us?" Michael raised his eyebrow.

"If we want to be saved then yes." Clarity nodded.

"Well, how are we going to do that?" Calum asked.

"Well, why don't you all sit down and listen to my amazing plan." Clarity smirked and stood up before walking over to the windows and shutting all the curtains.


	6. blame it on my a.d.d baby

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kinda a filler chapter but still a chapter. so new characters, if you recognised them then well done it's pierce the veil :D i'm seeing them in concert on tuesday and i'm like dying inside omg. wooo. same thing with the other chapters, this was edited from a hetero book to a lashton so i obviously had to edit some characters so in some places there may be incorrect pronouns or descriptions just let me know and i'll fix them.

"So you're saying that we should set fire to a building to let people know we're here?" Luke furrowed his brow.

"Yes." Clarity nodded, smiling proudly.

"Couldn't we just call them or something?" Michael shrugged.

"And say what?" Clarity put her hands on her hips.

"Well, we could say that we're here and we'd appreciate it if we could get rescued because we have two people with us that help find a cure."   
Michael retorted.

"Technically three because me and Clarity are sisters." I spoke up.

"Exactly, anyway you wouldn't have to do it. I'll do it, you just need to stay here and be a sweetheart." Clarity snickered.

Michael rolled his eyes and leaned back in his seat.

"It could work though." Clarity spoke up.

"Are you out of your fucking mind?" Michael stood up and yelled.

"Literally, shut up." Clarity frowned and pinched her nose bridge with her fingers.

"Excuse me?" Michael raised his eyebrows.

"You heard me, be quiet." Clarity pointed a finger at Michael.

Michael scoffed and crossed his arms.

"Wait, both of you shut up. This could actually work." Courtney stood up.

"Everyone seriously underestimates me, I have some really intelligent moments sometimes." Clarity smiled, placing a hand on her head.

I scoffed and said, "Those moments are incredibly rare though."

She gasped and placed a hand over her heart, "I'm offended."

"That was probably the point." Michael suggested.

"Oh my God, shut up." Clarity raised her eyebrows.

"If the two of you don't stop arguing I will lock you both in a room until you kiss and make up." Courtney interrupted Michael before he could give another snarky remark.

"You want me to kiss that?" Clarity chortled.

"I could catch a disease." Michael retorted.

"Both of you see if you can keeps your mouths shut for just one second." Courtney finally snapped.

Michael and Clarity instantly stopped talking and sat still.

"The zombie we took last week died this morning so I need someone to go out and get another one. Any volunteers?" Courtney asked, her voice strangely cheery.

When no one raised their hands or spoke up she clapped her hands together and began talking again, "Perfect! Michael and Clarity you can go out and get one together. Luke you can go with them as adult supervision, make sure they don't get too rowdy."

The red-haired man and blue-eyed girl groaned as I forced them out of their seats and out of the apartment door. I picked up a metal baseball bat and two shovels that were on the floor by the door and followed them quickly.

* * *

"Oh my God, I do not have an interest in hunting." Clarity groaned from where she was sat on the concrete ground.

"I could literally have more fun watching paint dry." Michael whined, still not getting up from being led face down on the wooden bench outside the apartment complex.

"I know it's only been a week and all but I really would've thought that there would be more zombies, I mean the human race is really damn stupid so how would we survive this?" I said, sitting down beside my sister.

"If we're hunting shouldn't we be walking around looking for the zombies instead of sitting here and waiting for them to come to us." Michael spoke   
up.

"Probably," Clarity agreed, "but I'm way too lazy for that, waiting for them is a better idea." 

"Aww, I'm so proud of you guys, it's officially been five minutes since your last argument." I looked down at my watch.

They both just stared at me with blank expressions, an awkward silence fell over us until Clarity finally reacted. She hit Michael on his back and said, "P*ss off Elmo."

"You're one to talk, you're literally a tribute act to Morticia Addams." Michael retorted.

"Shut up a second." I held a hand up.

"Excuse you?!" Clarity ignored me.

"You heard what I said." Michael sat up straight and crossed his arms.

"Seriously shut up!" I yelled.

The two of them stopped their pointless bickering and silence fell over us, the only sound was the faint roar of a car engine.

"Can you two hear that?" I asked.

"Yeah." Michael nodded his head.

Clarity shook her head and said, "No, I have the worst hearing ever."

"That explains why you didn't hear what I said, hang on a second lemme get my megaphone." Michael chuckled.

"Literally, suck my c*ck." Clarity stuck her tongue out at him.

"Oh my God, Clarity stop. Can't you hear a car engine?" I interrupted before they could argue any more.

"Oh yeah, I can hear it now 'cause I can see it too." The black haired girl pointed behind me.

"Do you think they'll stop?" Michael was sat up normally on the bench now.

I looked over my shoulder to look at the car, "Maybe, it is slowing down."

"Well, that tends to be a sign of something stopping." Clarity said, sarcasm clear in her voice.

"No sh*t." Michael retorted.

Clarity glared at him before standing up from her position on the ground and walking towards the road. She stuck her hand out and the car began to slow down even more before it came to a complete halt in front of her.  
The driver's window rolled down and a man with dark brown hair appeared. 

"Alright?" Clarity smiled at the man, holding a hand above her eyes to shield them from the sun.

"Yeah, do you know some place we could stay until they start rescuing people?" The man asked, an American accent clear in his voice.

"Uh, we're in this apartment block here there's probably some empty apartments if you can find the keys." She answered.

Michael stood up and walked towards the car. He rested his elbow on the open window and began talking to the man too.

"There's the main office at the front and they keep a spare key to every apartment in there so you can just pick one from there. There's an apartment above ours that's free if you want that one, the owner moved out like 6 months ago." He pointed to the front of the building.

"Alright, thanks. Do you think you could help us out a bit, obviously we're not from around here so it'd be better if we had someone who was?" The man smiled.

"Yeah sure, I've lived here for like a year for uni. What's your name?" Clarity asked.

"Oh, I'm Vic." He said as he opened the door and got out of the door.

"I'm Clarity, this d*ckhead here's Michael." Clarity pointed to herself then at Michael.

"Snooty cow." Michael muttered under his breath.

"I heard that." Clarity frowned.

Suddenly, the back door of the car opened and three more guys appeared, all three of them with colourful tattoos trailing down their arms unlike Vic, whose arms were completely clean.

Vic pointed at one of the men who had long brown hair that was shaved on both sides and a shiny medusa piercing before saying, "This is Mike my brother."

The man held out his hand and Clarity took it and shook it before nodding at him.

"I'm Jaime." The man with dark brown, spiky hair smiled and waved.

"This is Tony." Jaime pointed at the remaining man who had similar brown hair that swept up into a quiff.

All four men turned to look at me and Clarity followed their eyes before chuckling slightly and saying, "Oh right, that's my brother Luke. He was actually bitten like a week ago and he's apparently got some mental disorder because he didn't turn into a zombie."

I smiled and waved before saying, "Have you noticed that we've been out here for almost an hour and we haven't found a single zombie?" 

"See, this is what I meant, we should actually walk around and look for them." Michael shrugged.

Clarity scoffed before turning to the 4 men who were looking at us strangely, "This girl, Courtney, wants us to catch a zombie so she can run tests on it. She's trying to be like Will Smith from I Am Legend or something like that." 

Mike and Jaime chuckled at that before Clarity spoke up again, "I'm gonna take these guys inside and find them a key, alright? You better catch   
a zombie 'cause I ain't coming back out here."

The 4 guys followed her as she led them into the apartment building and out of our sight.

* * *

 

CLARITY's POV: (oooo fancay)

 

I walked towards the brown door that led into the main office and grabbed onto the door handle, trying to push it open and sighing dramatically when it wouldn't open.

"F*ck's sake." I swore under my breath. 

I rattled the handle a few times and kicked the door out of anger before of the guys behind me, Mike, stepped forward and said, "Here, let me."

I stepped away from the door as he took a step back and lifted his leg, kicking the lock twice causing it to swing open forcefully.

"Well, that's useful." I grinned before walking into the room and looking at the big rack of keys that were hung up on the wall.

"Uh, the guys are apartment 24 so if you go to the one above them it'll be number 34." I spoke to myself as I found the key for apartment 24 and took it off the rack, along with the spare key.

"There's two keys so here you go." I smiled, handing them to Vic.

I turned back around and took the spare key for apartment 24 and tucked it into the pocket of my black skinny jeans before walking out of the room and shutting the door behind me.


	7. sail

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> soo still a bit of a filler and gotta get a love triangle in there somehow. so courtney's relationships won't take up the majority of the book it'll be like 2 more chapters at most of her mike and justin. but the real drama will be starting up soon with clarity's plan coming into action and courtney developing a cure. ayyeeee. and then we'll get some real lashton action coming into play in the next chapter.
> 
>  
> 
> OMG, pierce the veil and sleeping with sirens were amazing i almost peed my pants like i'm not even joking it was beautiful and i'm definitely seeing them again omg.

BACK INTO LUKE'S POV::

"I think you killed it." Michael stared at the immobile zombie led on the metal bench in Courtney's 'lab'.

"Of course I didn't, it's perfectly fine." I scoffed before walking over to the stairs and making my way up into the guy's apartment.

Clarity, Courtney, Ashton, Calum and Megan were sat in the living room with Mike, Tony, Vic and Jaime when I walked in.

"Courtney, we got a zombie but it might be dead..." I trailed off.

"What do you mean it might be dead?" Courtney raised an eyebrow.

"Well, it came up behind me and I just hit it round the head with a shovel but it might've been a little too hard 'cause it isn't moving." I scratched the back of my neck awkwardly.

"I said I wanted it alive." Courtney stood up.

"I know but-" I was cut off by a high pitched scream from downstairs.

"Oh my fucking God." There was a series of thundering steps running up the stairs and Michael burst into the room.

"Perfectly fine, definitely not dead." Michael reassured and grabbed my forearm before running out of the room and back down the stairs with me behind him.

Courtney was close behind us as we ran into the 'lab' where a zombie was strapped down to the metal table, flailing wildly and trying to break free of its bonds.

"Well done guys." Courtney sounded impressed.

"See, I'm not entirely useless you know." Clarity grinned.

"You didn't help us get it." I chuckled.

"I offered entertainment beforehand." She shrugged.

Courtney didn't say anything as she took out a needle and filled it up with some clear liquid. She turned around and injected it into the zombie's neck. The zombie slowly stopped flailing until it stopped altogether.

We all walked back up the stairs and into the living room again where we all sat down. After a few moments of silence I finally decided to start a conversation.

"What are we gonna do if it breaks out?" I asked.

"How would it break out of those bonds?" Michael frowned.

"Because it's an intelligent and talented creature, unlike you." Clarity snorted at her own joke.

"You're looking for a cure right?" The man sat opposite me, Tony, asked.

Courtney nodded in response.

"We were in Birmingham a few days ago and I heard that people who were bitten but had used Class A drugs took longer to turn. So that could potentially lead to a cure right?" Tony said.

"So what, are we all just gonna become meth heads then?" Clarity scoffed.

"No, but this could really mean something." I bit my fingernail as I concentrated.

"Well, I know a guy who deals cocaine and ecstasy, if he's still alive." Courtney shrugged.

"Are they Class A drugs?" Calum furrowed his brows.

"Yeah, LSD and meth is too." The black-haired girl answered.

"How do you know all this?" I asked.

"Manchester can be a pretty rough place." She scratched the back of her head.

* * *

"So, if this guy isn't alive, what do we do then?"Jaime asked as he swung the metal baseball bat in his hand back and forth.

"I don't know, I haven't thought that far to be honest." Courtney skipped down the empty road, metal shovel in hand.

"Wait, so we're coming all this way and this guy might be dead." Mike stopped walking in the middle of the road.

"Yes." Courtney answered nonchalantly, "Don't worry though, I know where his stash is if he does so happen to be dead."

"Jesus Christ." Mike muttered under his breath, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Come on, it's a fun adventure. I can show you guys some places that'd be safe in the event that we get separated." Courtney suggested.

Mike smiled slightly and walked slightly faster so he was beside Courtney. I heard the quiet murmur of voices as a conversation sparked between them.

Jaime slowed down and started walking beside me.

"He doesn't normally act like this around new people, he's normally more uptight and defensive." The brown haired man looked over at me.

"You think he likes her?" I smirked.

"Oh yeah. You should've seen the heart eyes he was giving her before you came back up with that zombie." He scoffed.

"Seriously?" My eyes widened.

"Yeah, look at how close he's walking to her too." Jaime pointed in front of us.

He was right, Mike was so close that Courtney's shoulder was touching his shoulder. Courtney was quite short as she'd had her growth spurt early when she was younger and stopped getting taller by the time she was 14 when she was just 5'1.

"It's kind of sweet isn't it?" I smiled.

"You know, the way Mike's been looking at her is the way Ashton looks at you?" He raised his eyebrows.

"Jog on." I scoffed and chuckled.

"Uh, what?" He frowned.

"Oh right, it's like a British term, it kinda means fuck off, I guess." I shrugged.

Jaime nodded in understanding before turning to look at Courtney when she threw a rock at a window.

"Courtney, what the fuck?" I asked.

"Don't worry, no one lives there anyway. We're here." She smiled, pointing at a pub in front of us.

"The World's End." Mike read the sign above the door.

"Well, that's ironic." I chuckled.

Courtney pushed open the door and we were all surprised when we saw there were people in there. After we all got over the initial shock of actually seeing other people, Courtney led us over to the bar where one man was stood behind it, pouring beer into a pint glass.

The blue-eyed girl coughed and knocked on the bar with her fist three times.

The guy behind the bar looked up at Courtney and chuckled slightly, "You know you don't have to do that anymore right?"

"It's fun." Courtney shrugged.

"What do you need?" The man lowered his voice slightly as he leaned over the bar counter.

"Cocaine or ecstasy, either one I don't mind." She smirked.

The guy reached below the bar and picked up two ziplock bags, putting them down on the counter.

"How much do you want?" Courtney asked.

"We're in the middle of a fucking apocalypse, I don't need any money. Take both." The man smiled.

"Aw, Justin. Look at you helping out the less fortunate." Courtney laughed.

"Shut up." The guy, Justin, blushed.

"Oh right, four pints too." Courtney grinned.

Justin ran a hand through his light brown hair and placed four pint glasses on the counter, filling them one by one with cider.

"So, mind telling me why you need cocaine and ecstasy?" Justin raised his eyebrows, his blue eyes glancing up at Courtney then back into the pint glass in his hand.

"I’m trying to find a cure and apparently if you take class A drugs after being bitten it slows the virus down or something like that. So I want to test it on a zombie." Courtney explained, sipping from the glass in front of her.

"How are you gonna get a zombie to test it on?" Justin grabbed another glass and filled it up for himself.

"Oh, we caught one." She smiled.

"No, me and Michael caught one, Clarity barely helped and you didn’t even come outside." I scoffed.

"I still assisted in some way." Courtney exclaimed.

"Yeah, like complaining about how bored you were." I retorted.

"Whatever. I had an idea too, on how to get us noticed if they start trying to rescue people or something like that." Courtney said.

"You're gonna set something on fire aren't you?" Justin chuckled.

"How'd you guess?" Courtney's eyes widened.

"I know you inside and out Courtney." Justin winked.

"Bit inappropriate don't you think?" Courtney laughed.

"Well, that's just Justin." Another guy walked out from a door behind the bar.

"Kellin!" Courtney exclaimed, a smile spreading across her face.

"Hey C." The guy, Kellin, smiled, pushing some of his long black hair out of his face.

I picked up the glass in front of me and drunk a mouthful of the beer in it.

"Do you have any rooms upstairs?" I asked Justin when Courtney and Kellin started having a conversation of their own.

"Uh, me and Kellin are staying in one so there's two more, why do you guys need a place to stay?" Justin frowned.

"No we're fine, just in case we have to leave that place, we'll have somewhere else to go." I explained.

"Oh right. Well, I'll keep a room free for you guys, I'd do anything to help Courtney out." Justin smiled, looking over at the blue-eyed girl.

"You seem very... fond of her." Mike narrowed his eyes as he leaned against the bar counter, speaking up for the first time.

"She stayed with me when she first came up to Manchester, we weren't really together, more like friends with benefits." Justin shrugged.

"You've got feelings for her though, don't you?" I smiled.

"Of course I do, almost everyone who knows her does." He chuckled.

"What do you mean?" I frowned.

"Well, she's a beautiful girl with an amazing personality; she can make almost everyone fall in love with her." Justin smirked.

"I heard that." Courtney smiled, a blush forming on her cheeks.

Justin grinned and looked over at the door as it slammed open, a man with brown hair bursting through. The man's chest rose and fell as he stopped to get his breath back.

"Gabe?" Courtney raised her eyebrows.

Justin hopped over the bar, walking over to the panting man, "Dude, what's wrong?"

"It's, uh, it's Jack. He's been bitten." The man, Gabe, breathed out.

"Time to test that drug theory, eh?" Courtney winked at me as she walked past, the two plastic bags in one hand and her almost empty pint glass in the other.


	8. maybe i should cry for help

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mmm yass, what is this? two updates in one day, i think, whooo. we're very close to the drama now, so close that i've actually started to plan chapters instead of winging it. how fab am i?
> 
> so it's getting a little more complicated to edit the chapters 'cause in the original book clarity doesn't exist and courtney is the main character's sister but i decided to change it and now i'm regretting it but whatever.

"Is he gonna be alright?" Gabe whispered.

"Probably, that whole drug thing worked I think. Unless it was that mental disorder theory." Courtney smiled as she dabbed Jack's forehead with a cold towel.

"Mental disorder?" Justin asked from where he was sat on the bed beside Jack.

"Well, Luke got bitten but he didn't turn and he healed very quickly. I'd heard that some people were getting bit but weren't turning and instead they were developing mental disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Luke's been showing symptoms of A.D.D so I think that's it." Courtney explained, setting the wet towel down on the counter beside her.

Jack was resting in the same room that I'd been in when I was bitten. He wasn't doing well though, he wasn't recovering like I did. He had a high fever and kept mumbling gibberish in his sleep. He was sweating like crazy even though he was shirtless and only wearing some boxers.

Courtney had given him the ecstasy per Ashton's recommendation. He thought it'd be better than cocaine. It seemed to help a little bit as his temperature had gone down and he wasn't mumbling as much as he was but he still wasn't doing well.

Ashton walked into the room, looking at Jack, "What's his temperature at now?"

"Um, last time I checked it was 39." Courtney answered, dabbing the towel on the black-haired man's forehead again.

"Isn't that like really cold?" Kellin frowned.

"We're in England you dork, we're measuring in Celcius." Courtney rolled her eyes.

"I'm gonna go get Alex and the other Jack." Ashton spoke up after a few moments of silence.

"What, why?" I asked.

"I'll tell you in a minute." Ashton replied as he walked out the door.

"Who's Alex and Jack?" Justin asked as he walked into the room.

"Remember the guys I was with when I dropped acid for the first time?" Courtney laughed.

"Oh, you found those guys again?" Justin chuckled.

Courtney didn't get a chance to answer as the door slammed open, causing all of us to jump.

"Was that really necessary?" I exclaimed.

"I thought it was." Jack shrugged as he walked into the room.

Alex and Ashton followed him in after they shut the front door and locked it.

"Right, why are they here then?" Courtney sighed.

"Well, Jack has a high fever right?" Ashton raised his eyebrows.

"Do I?" Jack asked.

"No, not you, other Jack." Ashton groaned, pointing at the Jack that was led in the bed.

"Anyway, you were saying..." Courtney interrupted before Jack could say anything else.

"Right, well high fever can be a side effect of cancer and the other day Alex said that it might be some extreme form of a disease we already have. So what I'm thinking is that's it." Ashton explained, sitting down at the foot of the bed.

"So what, we give him chemo?" Justin asked.

"Not exactly, I think the cure could be in his blood. Because he isn't a zombie yet, but he has the virus in his system. If we can keep him human for long enough I think Courtney could find a cure." Ashton grinned.

"Right, we keep him high as a fucking kite for as long as we can." Courtney clapped.

"When did you give him that first ecstasy pill?" Justin furrowed his brow.

"Uh, about 3 hours ago." Courtney said.

"You parachuted it?" The brown-haired man asked.

"Yeah, so he's got like 4 hours left before we need to give him more right?" Courtney raised an eyebrow.

"Yep, so what should we do in that time?" Justin looked around at everyone.

Courtney smirked, "I'm glad you asked."

* * *

"So, who's gonna come with you on this 'adventure' then?" Kellin asked.

Courtney shrugged, "Whoever want's to come with me can. Any volunteers?"

Justin, Kellin, Mike, Tony and Jaime all raised their hands, saying that they would go.

"Alright," Mike said, looking around at everyone who decided they would go, "What's the official 'plan' then for this?" 

"Right, there's the three biggest buildings in Manchester. Beetham Tower, CIS Tower and the New Wakefield Street apartments. We've got six of us so I say we partner up and each pair can take a different building. Then we go to the top floor of every building and once we're there we'll set the top floor on fire, then make our way back to the bottom and get the f*ck out of there." Courtney explained.

"How is this gonna help to government notice us?" Jaime asked.

"The three tallest buildings in Manchester that are no where near each other aren't going to just catch fire at the same time for no reason are they?" Courtney said.

"When you put it that way it's actually a pretty good plan." Tony laughed.

"I know right?" Courtney smiled.

Courtney started to go through an official plan of who would go to which building and how they would get there.

"Vic, how many people can fit in your car?" Courtney frowned.

"Um, five but if you don't wear seatbelts or whatever you could probably get all of you in there." Vic answered, looking up from the drugs he was sorting out.

Courtney started talking with the guys more about this 'plan' so I walked over to Vic and Ashton. I hopped up onto the kitchen counter and crossed my legs, looking at what they were doing.

"What are you guys actually doing?" I asked.

Ashton looked up at me and smiled before explaining, "We're portioning out the ecstasy so that if one of us gets bitten or something like that we don't have to waste our time with figuring out how much to use and we can just grab one of these and use it."

"Oh right, that's handy. How long has it been since we gave Jack his first dose?" I raised my eyebrow.

Vic looked down at his watch, "Around 6 and a half hours."

"Should we give him some more then?" I jumped down off of the counter.

"Ask Justin and Courtney, they're the drug experts." Ashton chuckled.

"Courtney, it's almost been 7 hours should we give Jack some more ecstasy?" I asked.

Courtney stood up from her place on the couch but before she could answer there were a few moans of pain from Jack's room.

Courtney and Justin rushed over to Vic and Ashton. Courtney grabbed a rolled up ball of tissue which I assumed had the crushed ecstasy pill inside before going into Jack's room.

I didn't go in because I wasn't sure if the sight would be pretty but I could hear Jack's whines and whimpers and Courtney's comforting words.

"It hurts so fucking much." Jack's voice was dry and hoarse.

"I know sweetie, swallow this and in a few days we'll have something that'll really make you better, okay?" Courtney's voice was different than it normally was.

She'd always been good at comforting people and she was a complete mother hen around people she cared for. I decided it'd be okay to walk into the room and I was greeted with the sight of Justin dabbing Jack's forehead with the damp towel and Courtney running her hands through his black hair.

"How is he?" I asked with a smile as I walked in.

"He's getting better, I think. His temperature's at 38.6 now." Courtney looked over at me, her voice still soft and gentle.

"I never thought I'd see you genuinely caring for someone." I joked.

"Piss off, I looked after Justin all the time when he got colds." Courtney retorted.

"You should've been a nurse or something, not a stoner in a garage band." Justin smiled, shaking his head.

"I still went to uni though; at least I did that eh?" The black-haired girl chuckled.

"You went to 12% of classes, babe. The other 88% was spent getting high with me." Justin scoffed.

I laughed when Courtney blushed slightly when he called her babe.

"Do you really think he'll be okay?" Justin asked.

"I think so. The ecstasy is definitely slowing the virus down, I mean, most people are turned within an hour of being bitten, he was bitten 7 hours ago. We need to hurry up though, we don't have time to f*ck around, Courtney, you need to figure this out now." Ashton walked into the room.

"I’ll need to do these blood tests and whatever right now then. I don't know how long we can keep Jack alive for but if I don't find a cure then I'm not gonna be the one to kill one of my closest friends." Courtney stood up and walked over to Ashton.

"Alright, I need Clarity and Rebel and I'll take some from Jack and the zombie downstairs and look at them all tonight." Courtney took a deep breath.

Courtney looked at Justin and said, "Stay with Jack, if anything weird happens come get us."

Justin nodded and smiled as we walked out of the room and made our way downstairs. I gestured for Clarity to come with us as I walked past the living room and she followed us quickly.

"Either of you scared of needles?" Courtney said as he sat us both down on a metal bench opposite the unconscious zombie.

We both shook our heads and Courtney came over to Clarity, tightening an elastic band around her bicep. There was a very prominent vein on the inside of her elbow so it was easy for Ashton to put the needle into her vein.

I couldn't look as the blood flowed into the tube but Clarity was content with looking at it, having a completely normal conversation with Courtney as it was happening.

"How can you be so relaxed with looking at that?" I asked.

"I don't know really. I guess it's a sign that I'm living or something like that. A sign that I'm not one of those... things." Clarity nodded towards the zombie.

After Courtney filled two small tubes up with her blood she moved over to me, tightening the band around my arm before going to get a new, clean needle. I winced as she pushed the needle into my arm and once again looked away instead of looking at the tubes.

When he was done he moved over to the zombie.

"I don't really know how this is going to work, do they still have veins?" Ashton shrugged.

She grabbed another needle and just pushed it into the zombies arm, hoping for the best. I almost gagged at the sight of the blood, it wasn't like a human's blood. It was thick and gloopy and worst of all, it was completely black.

"That isn't right, man." Clarity shook her head.

Courtney filled the two tubes as quickly as she could before moving away from the zombie and putting them in a test tube rack.

We all walked back up the stairs, Courtney having a final clean needle in his hand and two tubes so he could take blood from Jack.

Courtney was the first into Jack's room, sitting down on the bed beside Justin.

"Jack, love?" Courtney touched the boy's cheek gently.

Jack's eyes opened, his pupils clearly dilated. 

"We need to take some blood from you, okay? It'll take two seconds." She smiled at him as Justin continued to dab his forehead.

Courtney hurried to put the needle into Jack's arm, wincing slightly when Jack moaned. She filled the two tubes quickly and took the needle out. She then placed a little piece of tissue over the little point where the needle had been put into Jack's skin and a small bead of blood had formed.

"How are you feeling hun?" Courtney smiled.

"Better, it hurts less." Jack coughed.

Courtney picked up the thermometer beside his bed and placed it into his mouth, taking his temperature.

"38.3" She said.

"It's gone down a lot, that's good right?" I looked over at Ashton.

"In most cases it would be, but with this virus, I don’t think we can be too sure." He sighed, walking out of the room with the two tubes in his hand.

I walked out after him, following him as he walked back towards the kitchen. I stood beside him as he started to crush pills up and put them into little balls of tissue. I wasn’t really sure what it all was as I’d never done either of these drugs but it was interesting to watch

"So, how is Courtney gonna go about developing this cure?" I asked.

"Well, she’s going to compare Clarity’s blood and your blood with that of the zombies and then with Jack. If my theory was right Jack should have some properties of human blood and some of zombie blood. A mixture of the two is probably the cure." He explained as he was moving things around on the counter.

"Does it make me seem like a pussy if I say I'm actually scared?" I chuckled.

"No, it doesn't." Ashton stopped what he was doing to turn around to face me.

"Really?"

"Of course not," He said, pulling me into a hug, "I'll protect you." 

"Thank you." I smiled, burying my face in his neck.

I lifted my head up and looked into his eyes. He began to lean forwards and I did too, standing up on my tip toes slightly so I could reach him. I pressed my lips against his and tangled my fingers in his hair.

I slipped my tongue into his mouth and smiled as he wrapped his arms tighter around my waist, bringing me closer towards him until our chests were touching.

He pulled away and pressed his forehead against mine. I didn't open my eyes and I'm pretty sure he didn't either as he whispered, "I'll protect you.”


	9. maybe i should kill myself

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> slightly longer chapter here as we're really getting into the drama now, 8 chapters left. this took me a long ass time and a lot of tings happened. i've realised that luke is actually more of a bystander than anything else but that seems kinda cool i guess. instead of the main character doing all the action shit he's just chilling and talking about everything as he sees it. idk, i'm cool with it so whatever.
> 
> WARNING:: this one might get a little bit gory, nothing too gross but just be warned.

"The three buildings are quite close together, right?" I asked.

"Yeah, takes like, 10 minutes to get from the CIS Tower to New Wakefield with no traffic." Courtney said as she pulled a black shirt over her head.

"What are we going for then, matches or lighters?" Justin walked into the room dressed in a black shirt and black skinny jeans.

"Matches, it's more dramatic that way." Courtney smiled.

"Alright, we've got 6 jerry cans of gas, that's enough right?" Mike carried two cans in his hands as he entered the room with Tony and Jaime behind him, all dressed in the same clothes as Justin.

"Oh yeah, that's definitely enough." Courtney nodded.

"So, everyone ready?" The black-haired girl asked when everyone was in the room.

We all nodded and waited for her to give us instructions on what to do.

"Okay, Justin you're with me, we're gonna take the Beetham Tower. Mike and Tony you guys can take the CIS Tower and Kellin and Jaime you guys can do New Wakefield. We'll be around an hour tops. Rebel, keep an eye on Jack, I gave him a pill about half an hour ago so he should be fine but make sure you check his temperature if it goes below 37 then he's definitely getting better." Courtney stood in front of all of us as she explained our plan.

"We only have one car." Mike frowned.

"Well the CIS Tower is like 2 minutes away and then if you go down Travis Street you get to New Wakefield then you come out by The Ritz and Deansgate which is opposite Beetham Tower. After we set our places on fire we get out of our buildings as quickly as possible, you guys will be coming straight back her and me and Justin are going to take care of something else. " Courtney explained.

After everyone nodded in realisation, Courtney clapped her hands and said, "Any questions?"

Ashton walked into the room and said, "Yeah, I've got a question. What are you and Justin getting up to?"

Courtney groaned, "We're gonna go to some of the wi-fi towers to see if we can get them back up and running so contacting people will be easier."

"What about phone towers?" Kellin asked.

"Well, your providers probably sh*t 'cause mine still works fine and so does everyone else's." Courtney laughed when Kellin pouted.

"Alright, is everyone ready?" Courtney smiled.

Everyone nodded and there was a chorus of 'yeahs' from the guys. 

Courtney turned to Ashton and said, "You know what you're looking for, you've got the logic to figure out this virus and I've got the science knowledge to make this cure. Hurry the f*ck up and get back downstairs."

Everyone picked up a jerry can of gas and opened the front door, walking out with me trailing behind them.

They all had shovels and baseball bats in case they ran into any trouble with zombies and especially other survivors. As soon as we got to the front door of the apartment block I realised they would need to use them more than I expected.

There was a small hoard of zombies, clawing at the glass door and hitting it, trying to get inside of the building. I silently thanked God that Courtney had had the intuition to lock that door and set up a small barricade so that zombies and people couldn't get in.

"How many of them are there?" Tony asked.

"I'd say around 15, maybe more." Justin stepped closer to the door to be able to get a good look at the zombies.

The decaying... things at the door were going crazy at the sight of a human that they could feast on. 

Courtney took the key from her pocket and looked around at everyone, making sure they were ready before moving some of the furniture that the barricade was made of out of the way. The doors were rattling worryingly, as if they were about to fly off the hinges at any moment. 

As the black haired girl turned the key she readied the shovel in her hand so that she could hit the first zombie that came hurling towards her. The doors flung open and the zombies piled into the room. 

Everyone immediately began attacking them, Courtney hitting one with the sharp edge of her shovel, burying it in the side of it's neck. Some more of the black, gloopy blood came oozing out of the wound as she pulled the shovel out and hit it again, causing its head to come off.

In minutes there were 14 dead zombies led on the ground, only one left standing. Everyone was panting heavily and staring in disgust at the remaining zombie. It's chest was open and you could see it's heart slowly beating. It was black and had white veins running over it. It was beating way to slow to be a human heart and looked as if it belonged to a human who had been dead for thousands of years.

The zombie began walking towards Courtney, it behaved differently than the others. It walked slowly and didn't seem like it wanted to hurt her or kill her. No one moved as we watched the zombies movements closely, but you could see by how tense everyone was that they were ready to attack if it hurt Courtney.

It lifted its hand and placed it on her chest, right were her heart would be. Courtney visibly tensed as it touched her but stayed calm as it lifted it other hand to gesture towards it's heart that was gradually beating slower and slower.

I watched it, never taking my eyes off of its chest as it's heart visibly stopped beating. It didn't drop to the floor though, it stayed standing. It stayed standing until Mike stepped forward and hit it's head with his baseball bat, causing it to collapse.

Courtney snapped out of whatever trance she was in and stumbled backwards slightly, Kellin and Jaime stepping forward to stop her from falling over.

I walked over to wear Justin and Mike were standing, looking down at the body sprawled out on the floor at their feet.

"What the f*ck was that?" I asked.

"I don't know and honestly, I don't know if I wanna find out." Justin sighed.

The three of us turned around to look over at Courtney who was being smothered by Jaime, Kellin and Tony.

"Are you okay?" I spoke up as I stood in front of her.

"Yeah, just a little spooked I guess. It was so cold when it touched me though, but it clearly had blood and it's heart was beating." Courtney looked around at all of us.

None of us really knew what to say to her so we were relieved when she spoke up again after a few seconds of a slightly uncomfortable silence.

"Well, we've delayed enough already as it is, should we get going?" She smiled at all of us.

Everyone murmured a quiet agreement and they wearily made their way outside, looking around them to make sure no zombie or person jumped out on them.

They safely got to the car and loaded the six jerry cans into the boot of the car. Justin climbed into the driver's seat and Mike into the passenger seat with Kellin, Courtney, Tony and Jaime managing to fit all four of them into the back seats. They rolled down the windows as I walked over to the car.

"Don't take too long alright, and don't set yourself on fire, okay?" I chuckled slightly as I looked over at Kellin and Courtney who were both trying to sit comfortably in the same seat.

"I'll try not to." Courtney retorted.

"Your phone still works, right?" I asked.

Courtney nodded as an answer.

"I'll call you if anything happens with Jack." I smiled.

"Right, thanks." Courtney smiled.

I pulled my jacket tighter around my torso as I quickly walked back into the apartment and shut up the door, locking it with the extra key that Courtney had given to me. I watched as they drove away quickly, trying to get to the buildings as quickly as possible.

When they were out of my sight I turned around and walked towards the stairs, jogging up them to get to the second floor. I walked into apartment 24 and shut the door, locking it behind me.

"Alright?" I asked, smiling at Vic.

"Yeah, you guys were down there for a long time, is everything alright?" The brown-haired man frowned slightly.

I walked over and sat next to him on the sofa before answering.

"Kind of. Outside the door there was a hoard of fifteen zombies and they cleared the first fourteen pretty well but the last one was different. It didn't attack them, it just walked up to Courtney and placed it's hand over her heart. It's chest wasn't there, like the skin had been ripped off and you could see it's heart beating inside it's rib cage." I explained, the memory clear in my mind as I spoke about it.

"Was its heart completely black with white veins by any chance?" Ashton asked.

I turned around quickly and Vic did the same when Ashton's voice came from behind us. 

"Yeah, it was, how do you know?" I questioned.

"I just cut open that zombie downstairs and saw the exact same thing too, but the heart stopped beating after around a minute of it's chest being opened." Ashton came over and sat on the arm chair opposite me as he spoke.

"Do you think it's something in the air?" Vic spoke up after a minute of all of us sat there thinking.

"They might be allergic to the air?" Ashton raised his eyebrows.

Vic nodded and shrugged.

"Maybe, but if they are allergic then why won't they die from simply inhaling it." Ashton scrunched his nose up slightly as he thought about it.

"Have you found anything in those blood samples?" I asked.

"I actually have. So, even though you didn't turn into a zombie you still have the zombie virus in your system. I think that might be what leads to a cure, I think that the cure is in the zombie virus itself." Ashton explained.

"Are you saying you need more of my blood?" I winced.

"No, I just need to extract the virus from that blood sample and then I can work on it further. It's slightly harder than it sounds but not exactly impossible either." He smiled.

"Well, get to work then." I smiled back at him.

 

* * *

 

COURTNEY'S POV:

We had just dropped Kellin and Jaime at the New Wakefield apartments and now it was just me and Justin in the car on our way to Beetham Tower. It was only down the road from the apartments so we were there in probably two minutes.

Both of us climbed out of the car and looked around for any sign of a person or zombie. When we saw nothing we made our way to the back of the car and took the two remaining gas cans out of the boot and hurried towards the tower.

"Do you reckon the doors are locked?" I asked.

Justin didn't answer. Instead he pushed the glass door and to my surprise it opened easily. Some of the overhead lights were smashed inside so in some places there were just patches of darkness.

We tried to walk as quietly as possible so that if anyone was here, they hopefully wouldn't notice us. As we stood in front of the lift both of us were trying to figure out if it would still be working but as we pressed the button to call it we soon found out that it was.

It would be a long ride up to the top floor and it would be awkward as hell if we weren't talking. Things had been slightly tense between us after last night. We had stayed in apartment 34 with Vic, Jaime, Tony, Mike and Kellin. We had to share a room and therefore a bed.

It was obvious that we both had feelings for each other but neither of us truly wanted to admit it. So last night we had a few drinks as we just wanted to let off some steam after the tiring two weeks of dealing with this apocalypse.

Drinking was clearly not a good idea because I guess we drank a little too much and we ended up sleeping together. I couldn't remember too much but we did wake up naked together and there was a used condom on the floor so any normal person would assume that's what happened.

We hadn't really spoken about it and it was just so awkward when we both woke up at the same time. I honestly don't think he wanted to talk about it, I knew he wasn't a relationship type of guy and neither was I really.

The lift was moving so slow and we were only on floor 3 of 47. 

"So, are we gonna talk about last night or just forget it ever happened?" I finally decided to speak up.

"I don't really want to talk about it to be honest. But I don't want to forget it either." Justin's voice was so low I almost couldn't hear him.

"Well then what do we do? Why are we even being so awkward about this, we've hooked up loads before." I raise my voice slightly as I begin to get irritated.

"This was different. We've been acting differently around each other and that last night actually meant something, even if we were fucking roared." Justin stepped forwards and away from where he was leaning against the wall.

"It's different how exactly? All you've been doing is complimenting me a shit ton and you haven't left my side since I found you at The World's End." I frowned.

"I was worried about you! I thought you could've died after we got separated." He yelled.

I couldn't find an answer to what he had said and I struggled to believe that he was actually worried about me. Back when we used to hook up we both made it clear that it was no strings attached, yet I developed feelings anyway but I didn't expect that he would. 

"You actually cared about me, all this time?" I gasped slightly.

"Of course I did but you were always too high to notice or too busy shagging other guys." Justin's voice was lower now, but I could still see that he was mad at how oblivious I had been.

"I... I don't know what to say..." I spoke up again after a moment of silence.

"You don't have to, we're here now. Let's just do what we have to do and get out of here." Justin walked out of the lift as we arrived at the top floor.  
I sighed and picked up the gas can that was by my feet before following Justin out of the lift.

 

* * * 

 

REBEL'S POV:

"Found anything yet?" I asked as I walked down the stairs towards Ashton's lab.

He looked away from whatever he was doing and up at me to smile before answering.

"Yeah, I have. Come here." He gestured for me to come over.

I walked over and stood beside him and waited for him to tell me what he had found.

"Look in there." He pointed at the microscope on the counter.

I looked into the microscope and couldn't really figure out what I was looking at. It was purple and there were lots of strang white circles along with some black ones. 

Once I had gotten a good look Ashton spoke up again, "Now look at this one."

He quickly changed the slides as I continued to look into the microscope. This one was red and had the same white dots as the other one. It also had slightly darker red dots instead of black ones this time.

"Those white dots are the same, what are they?" I asked.

"White blood cells. The black ones in the zombie virus are what we would call red blood cells. Now, I think if I can just replace those black cells with red blood cells then that would be the cure." Ashton explained as he picked up a syringe and added some of a red liquid to a petri dish.

To the same dish he added a purple liquid, I assumed that was the zombie virus. He took some of the mixture and prepared it in a slide and placed it under the microscope.

I moved out of the way so he could look into it and when he looked at it for a few seconds I could see the joy on his face as he moved to the side.

"Have a look." He urged me, smiling like a mad man and nodding his head.  
I looked into the microscope and gasped as I saw the same purple mess as before, the same white dots but the dots that had previously been black were the same as the red ones in the human blood I had looked at.

"Oh my God..." I trailed off, "Is this a cure?"

 

* * *


	10. blame it on my a.d.d baby

COURTNEY'S POV::

"F*cking hell," I whispered to myself as I poured gasoline all over the floor, "This sh*t stinks."

I was currently trying to cover half of an entire office building floor with one jerry can of gasoline and it wasn't working very well. The fumes were giving me a headache, the smell made me want to throw up and I'd almost used all the gas.

After our little argument Justin had walked to one side of the building and I went to the other, both of us getting on with what we had to do before meeting back up at the elevator to set this place ablaze. At least, I hope we were meeting back up. For all I know he could be planning to set the place on fire before I was finished and leave me here.

I poured the remaining gas over some office desks and electrical things before chucking the can down and making my way back to the elevator. I sighed in relief when I saw Justin standing there with his hands in his pockets, waiting for me.

I gave him a small smile before saying, "Ready?"

He nodded at me and picked out the box of matches from his pocket. We both stepped into the elevator and I nodded at him when I was ready. He lit a match and threw it outside of the elevator, the ground quickly engulfed in flames as I hurriedly pressed the button for the bottom floor.

The elevator doors closed quickly and we began moving down towards the ground floor.

Once again we were stood in an awkward silence and this time I wasn't sure if I really wanted to break it. I was hoping we could just get to the bottom floor and get out of her so that we could get home, the wi-fi towers could wait. Justin decided to speak up though which is exactly what I was hoping he wouldn't do.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you earlier and everything." 

"It's fine." I looked up at him and offered a small smile.

"It's not though. You've never seen me really p*ssed off before. I feel like I scared you." He sighed.

"Honestly, you did a little bit." I said, so quiet that I didn't think he would hear it.

"I didn't want to scare you. I'm scared myself, any of us could die at any moment. I mean, think about Jack, he's only alive because we've got him high as hell." Justin stepped closer to me.

"I know. Just think though, we've just set these buildings on fire so we'll hopefully get noticed and rescued." I grinned.

The elevator doors opened before Justin could say anything else and it didn't take long for me to sprint out of the building, Justin close behind me.

We both jumped into the car and Justin wasted no time in speeding away from the tower as quickly as possible.

"Drive the way we came here, we might find the guys and be able to give them a lift." I said.

"What about the wi-fi towers?" Justin frowned.

"We'll do it tomorrow." I answered.

We were both silent again as we drove quickly down the road we came here on until we spotted Kellin and Jaime jogging down the road. Justin held his hand down on the horn of the car for longer than necessary to get the guys' attention.

They both turned around and spotted us before they stopped running and got into the car when we pulled up beside them.

"I thought you guys were going to the wi-fi towers." Jaime said.

"Can't be f*cked, we're doing it tomorrow." Justin answered.

We continued driving and as we pulled up outside the apartment block we saw Mike and Tony walking inside the building. We all quickly got out of the car before rushing inside of the building.

"You guys go on up, I'll sort out the barricade and stuff." I smiled.

They all nodded and made their way upstairs towards their apartments. I began pushing the pieces of spare furniture in front of the door after I locked it. I pulled the black hoodie I was wearing off over my head as I was getting slightly hot. I threw it onto the floor and carried on with pushing the tables and chairs around.

When I was done I stood up straight with my hands on my hips and took a second to catch my breath. I suddenly had the feeling that someone was watching me but when I looked behind me I couldn't see anyone there in the darkness of the lobby.

I shrugged the feeling off and walked towards the main office where they kept all the keys. I grabbed the key for apartment 25 which was next to Ashton and Courtney. I wanted to have a place for myself as living with everyone else was just annoying and inconvenient.

I was about to turn around and leave to go upstairs and get some sleep but as I turned around someones hands grabbed my hips and slammed me up against the wall. Before I had time to react this mystery person pressed their lips against mine in a desperate, needy kiss.

As soon as I felt their lips against mine I instantly recognised this person as Justin, I'd kissed him enough times to know the feel of his lips. I began to kiss back and wrapped my arms around his neck. I tangled my fingers in his light brown hair as he slipped his tongue into my mouth.

I wrapped my legs around his waist and he pulled me up, pushing me back against the wall again, causing some of the keys to fall from their hooks onto the floor.

 

* * *

 

LUKE'S POV::

"Where's Justin and Courtney?" I asked.

"Courtney said she was staying downstairs to sort out the barricade on the front door and Justin said he'd stay and help her." Mike answered, clenching his jaw slightly.

"I'm gonna guess that they're doing a little bit more than sorting out a barricade." Kellin smirked.

Everyone laughed except for Mike, who instead balled his hands up into fists before he seemingly calmed down. I continued watching him until Courtney and Justin walked through the door around ten minutes later.

They both had sex hair, although Courtney had managed to tame hers down slightly and make it less obvious, everyone knew what they were up to. I looked over at Mike and saw the look of anger and jealousy on his face.

Jaime's words from the other day came back to me and I remembered that we'd both came to the conclusion that Mike had liked Courtney. I was snapped from my thoughts when Ashton called my name.

"Luke?" He said.

"Yeah?" I smiled.

"Come downstairs, I need to talk to you about something." He told me before he walked over to the stairs.

"How's Jack been?" I heard Courtney ask.

"He's doing good. I think he's awake now." I answered before walking down the stairs.

When I was down there Ashton told me to sit on the metal bench so he could talk to me.

"I'm gonna do a symptom check list and honestly that should be enough to diagnose you officially with add." Ashton smiled at me.

I nodded, not really paying attention to what he was saying.

"Alright, not able to pay attention to something for long periods of time?" He asked.

"Yeah." I said, sitting on my hands and swinging my feet back and forth.

"Restlessness and trouble relaxing?" 

"Yeah." I answered.

"Are you paying any attention to what I'm saying?" Ashton raised his eyebrows.

"Not really, no." I shook my head.

"Wow. Right, we don't have time for this. I need to figure out this virus properly." Ashton scoffed, walking over to the counter with the microscope on.

He began looking through the microscope and changing the slides, writing things down on a clipboard every few seconds.

"Sorry." I whispered.

"What for?" He asked, not looking up from what he was doing.

"Being troublesome, I mean, we could've figured this whole thing out two weeks ago if I hadn't of gotten bitten." I shrugged.

"It's not your fault. Everything happens for a reason, if you hadn't been bit we wouldn't of found Clarity and then we wouldn't have all these people helping us with what we're doing." Ashton answered, finally looking at me.

"Still, I can't help but feel we could've been rescued ages ago." I frowned.

He walked over to me again and placed his hands on my shoulders. 

"It wasn't your fault. If you didn't get bitten then I wouldn't know that the cure had something to do with you and your sister. Stop blaming yourself." He said firmly.

The blonde-haired man looked into my eyes for a few moments before they flickered down to my lips. He began leaning in and closed his eyes. I brought my arms up to wrap them around his waist and bring him closer to me, closing my eyes as our lips met.

He moved his arms so that he could wrap them around my neck and moved so he was stood between my legs.

He pulled away and began trailing kisses down my neck. He ran my hands through his hair and I let out a low moan as he sucked a hickey onto the base of my neck.

I felt warm hands go up underneath my shirt and feel my abs, fingers tracing patterns on my chest before Ashton pulled away and pulled my shirt over my head.

He started to kiss down my chest, getting closer and closer to the hem of my jeans and I felt myself start to get hard in my boxers.

"Oi, you two need to see this!" We pulled away when we hear Courtney's voice yell from the top of the stairs.

We stayed there for a moment or two, just looking into each other's eyes before Ashton pulled away and walked up the stairs, me following close behind him.

When we reached the top of the stairs we saw everyone else sat watching the TV. Honestly, I was surprised that it was still working. I sat down beside Courtney on the floor.

On the TV there was a news broadcast about the three tallest buildings in Manchester that were currently on fire.

"Rescue missions have begun and they are bringing survivors to Hollywood for questioning so scientists can hopefully create a cure. Authorities believe that the three burning buildings were set on fire purposefully to catch the attention of the rescuers. They've managed to find CCTV footage of two people, a man and a woman, in Beetham Tower, pouring gasoline on the top floor." The news reporter spoke with a serious voice.

"See guys, I told you it would work." Courtney cheered.

"The woman has been identified as Courtney Wright, a 19 year old student from Manchester. If anyone has a way of contacting this woman, please step forward." A picture of Courtney and another girl with platinum blonde hair at a party came up on the screen.

Mike turned down the volume on the TV and looked over at Courtney, "I hate to say it, but, that idea was a pretty good one."

"I know right?" Courtney grinned at him.

 

* * *

 

I was back downstairs in Ashton's 'lab' as he tried to figure out this virus. We were going with the idea that it was an extreme form of cancer. 

"When you're being diagnosed with cancer you get an MRI scan right? Shouldn't we just do that to a zombie?" I spoke up.

"Oh yeah, 'cause I can totally do that here." Ashton said sarcastically.

"Well, how are you going to fully understand this if you can't do that?" I frowned.

"When I looked at that virus there were loads of those black cells right?" Ashton said.

I nodded.

"They turned out to be our white blood cells. When you have leukaemia you get an increased amount of white blood cells and when we added your blood to the virus we got the blood of someone with leukaemia. I think that's what this virus is." Ashton concluded.

"So this is an extreme form of leukaemia but when we added my blood to the virus there still were way too many white blood cells. How do we get rid of them?" I asked.

He shrugged, "Beats me."

We stood there in silence for a moment until he spoke up again, "Unless..."

"What? Unless what?" I looked up.

"Maybe the cure is literally just your blood. Remember I said that there was one blood type immune to the virus? That's it, this is it. What blood type are you?" Ashton asked.

"Um, O negative I think." I scratched the back of my head.

"Perfect. People with O blood types can give blood to everyone." He grinned.

"Wait. You know how class A drugs were slowing the virus down, maybe a mixture of those drugs with this blood could be the cure." I suggested.

"I think you might be right." Ashton said as he started rummaging through the drawers in the counter.

"How do we test it though?" I frowned.

"We need to inject Jack with it. It's the only way."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow @ courtney being a cockblock what a fucking bitch man. SH*T IS HITTING THE FAN NOW B*TCHES!!!!!! i'm also sorting out a playlist of every song in this book so that it's fab af to read and listen to at the same time whoo. so with my book black widow there's a song for each chapter 'cause its based on an entire album and obviously this is based on sail by awolnation so that's the song of the book but i'm gonna start putting a 'song of the chapter' on each chapter on here so le song of the chapter is.....
> 
> my songs know what you did in the dark by fall out boy :D


	11. maybe i'm a different breed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry i took so long to update but i really wasn't in the mood to write like i've been ill and shit and i'm back at school too so hard times man. plus they stopped selling waffles at school so i'm depressed af about that too.

"I don't want to inject him with this cure!" Courtney yelled, throwing her hands in the air.

"Why not though? This could save the entire human race." I frowned.

"That's one of my best friends, I don't want some mad scientist injecting your blood into him." Courtney exclaimed, placing her hands on her hips.

"We've spent ages looking for this cure and now that we think we've got one you won't let us test it?" I raised my voice.

"That's right, I won't let you test it. Especially, if you're trying to test it on Jack." Courtney stepped closer to me.

"Shut the f*ck up, please." Jack groaned from where he led in his bed, a hand resting over his eyes.

Courtney and I instantly stopped yelling at each other to look over at Jack. We both stood there staring at him until he spoke up again.

"Courtney, I love you, I really do but please shut up. Let them test this thing on me." Jack moved his hand and looked at Courtney in the eye.

Courtney sighed and crossed her arms, "Fine."

"Thank you." I smiled.

Ashton came into the room with a syringe in his hand filled with the crimson coloured 'cure' that we had developed. 

"So, where are you putting it then? His neck, his arm?" Courtney asked.

I could tell she was nervous by the way her voice shook slightly and the fact that she simply couldn't stand still. She was biting her nails and tapping her thigh with the other hand.

"I don't know so I'm just going to go with his neck." Ashton shrugged.

I could see Courtney was about to yell again but Jack gave her a look that said 'don't you dare ' and she seemingly calmed down.

Ashton quickly injected the cure into Jack's neck. Jack's eyes closed and he visibly relaxed a lot. Courtney, however, panicked when she saw this and stepped forward.

"Ashton, what the f*ck is happening? He's okay right, like, he ain't dead or anything like that right?" Courtney began quickly firing questions at Ashton.

Ashton pressed his fingers against Jack's neck before turning to Courtney and saying, "He's still alive, you can even come and feel his pulse if you have to."

Ashton put the thermometer into Jack's mouth and smiled when he looked at the result after the small device beeped.

"36.7." He put the thermometer down, "That's a normal temperature."

"So, he's gonna be okay? Like, he's cured now?" Courtney grinned, sitting down on Jack's bed.

"I think so. I guess he's just sleeping, unless he's slipped into a coma, but I doubt it." Ashton hurried to dismiss the coma idea so he didn't make Courtney mad again.

Courtney smiled as she pushed some of Jack's hair back out of his face as it had become stuck to his forehead with sweat. 

* * *

I was sat alone in the living room looking out the window of the apartment. We were high up enough that I could see outside. There weren't any streetlights on though and they were only a few buildings with lights on.

There were clearly still people here trying to survive like us yet I don't think they had taken the steps we'd taken to ensure their survival.

Rain was pouring down from the skies and after a while I could barely see out the window anymore. The loud noises of thunder and lightning traveled through the silent apartment, making me jump every time another crack of thunder came.

I heard movement behind me and turned around to see Mike sit down on the sofa opposite me.

"Couldn't sleep?" I asked.

He shook his head, "Haven't been able to since this whole thing started."

"Same." I chuckled, "Can I ask you something?" 

He nodded, "Hit me."

"Do you have, like, a crush on Courtney?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Kind of. I just feel like I have to protect her or something stupid like that." He answered after a moment of silence.

"Protect her from what? Justin? Is that why you were so mad when you saw them together?" I smirked.

"Okay, fine, I have a crush on her. It's stupid anyway, she clearly likes f*cking Bieber-boy." He scoffed.

I laughed quietly, "I don't think she does. She's treating him like a boy toy." 

"Boy toys?" He raised his eyebrows.

"Ashton said that she'd hook up with a guy for a few months, led them on and pretend she likes them then get rid of them and move on to the next guy." I explained.

"You seem like exactly her type though and she hasn't came onto you yet. If she wanted to just hook up with you then she would've messed with you by now, she wouldn't of cared about Justin. That's why I think she likes you." I spoke again before he could say anything.

Mike was left seemingly speechless as he frowned and looked down at the floor.

"I'm going to go and try to get some sleep, think about what I said yeah?" I smiled before walking out of the room.

I walked into the room I shared with Ashton and slid into my bed. I was beginning to fall asleep when a loud crack of thunder sounded and a bright flash of lightning lit up the entire room.

I sat up in the bed and pulled the blanket tighter around me. I had always been afraid of storms and now that it was completely dark outside and not illuminated by the streetlights made it even worse.

Courtney was probably having the time of her life in her apartment, storms always seemed to calm her and make her happy.

I looked over to see Ashton stir in his sleep and I decided to make my move.

I stood up, the blanket still wrapped around my shoulders and made my way over to Ashton's bed.

I placed my hand on his shoulder and shook him lightly, "Ashton?"

He groaned slightly and opened his eyes, "Yeah?"

"I'm scared, can I sleep with you?" My voice shook slightly as I spoke.

Ashton lifted up the blanket that covered him and let me into the bed with him.

My eyes widened slightly when I realised he was shirtless but when I heard the next sound of thunder I quickly cuddled into him.

He wrapped his strong arms around me and held me tight against him. 

He kissed my forehead and said, "I didn't take you as the type to be afraid of storms."

"I know, sometimes I wish I was like Courtney. She just seems absolutely fearless." I sighed.

"She is," Ashton agreed, "the only thing she's afraid of is spiders.

My eyes widened when the room was lit up again by a blue flash and I moved closer, if that was even possible, to Ashton.

* * *

I woke up to the sound of a door slamming open and Courtney yelling.

"Yo, Ashton, you need to come look at this." I opened my eyes as the black-haired girl walked into the room.

She stopped walking and looked over at us, standing still for a moment before a smile cracked on her face.

"Well, isn't that lovely. Mike, Vic come get a look at this." I closed my eyes as I heard her yell for Vic and Mike to come in the room.

"Aw, that's sweet." I heard Vic coo.

"Goals as f*ck to be honest." Mike agreed.

"Well, I hate to ruin a good moment but Ashton needs to wake the f*ck up!" Courtney grabbed a pillow off of my bed and threw it at Ashton.

"What the hell?!" Ashton sat up.

"Jack's awake and he's like super paranoid. He's sanitized his hands at least ten times in the last five minutes." Courtney explained before leaving the room with Vic and Mike trailing behind her like lost puppies.

Ashton stood up and stretched his arms up above his head.

"Nice pjs." I said sarcastically, nodding my head towards the plaid pajama bottoms he was wearing.

"I could say the same for Courtney, did you see the Harry Potter pjs she was rocking?" He chuckled.

"She clearly gets her fashion sense from you then." I laughed as I stood up from the bed.

I wrapped the blanket around my shoulders and made my way out of the room, sighing in relief that there wasn't any awkward tension between us after last night.

He'd cuddled me and spoke to me about my favourite bands and whatever interested me until I was so tired I had to fall asleep.

I walked into Jack's room and watched him squirt a huge glob of hand sanitizer into his hand before rubbing it over his hands, making sure he didn't miss a spot.

Ashton walked in behind me and raised his eyebrows as he watched Jack hurriedly rush around the room, squirting hand sanitizer into everyone's hands.

"You all need to make sure you're clean before you come anywhere near me, and there will be no hand holding, that's so gross. So many germs and bacteria." He was muttering under his breath as he made sure everyone rubbed it in the way he wanted us to.

"I think it's safe to say he's recovered with a mental disorder." Courtney said, looking over at Ashton.

"Paranoid Personality Disorder perhaps." Ashton shrugged.

"Couldn't he just be OCD though?" I spoke up.

Ashton went to reply but was cut off by the loud ringing of a phone coming from the living room.

* * *


	12. maybe i'm not listening

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> literally the shortest chapter in the book. now courtney was a bitch and cockblocked butttt.... NEXT CHAPTER IS PRACTICALLY ALL SMUT SMUTTY MC SMUT SMUT THERE'S A THREESOME WITH AUSTIN CARLILE ALAN ASHBY AND COURTNEY AND THEN LUKE AND ASHTON DO THE GAY BUTT SEX AND THEN THERE'S MORE SMUT WITH COURTNEY CAUSE SHE GETS THE FUCK AROUND WHOO SMUT WHOO.
> 
> also, i just posted a kellic one shot with the gay butt sex in so you should read that if you're interested.

"Right, who's gonna answer it then?" I swallowed.

"I will." Courtney stepped forward and picked up the phone.

She answered it and put it on speaker before saying, "Hello."

"Hello. I'm the FBI Director, Austin Carlile. Am I right in thinking that this is Courtney Wright?" A man with an American accent answered.

"Yeah, that's right." Courtney said, sitting down on the floor.

"It was you who set the Beetham Tower on fire two days ago yes?" Austin asked.

"Yes that's me." Courtney agreed again.

"Why?"

"We wanted to be noticed. I don't want to die here and neither do my friends. Plus we believe we've found a cure." Courtney smirked.

"A cure, has it worked?" Austin sounded intrigued.

"My friend Jack was bitten, we managed to slow the virus down giving him ecstasy until our friend Ashton made this cure. He's recovered with what we believe to be Paranoid Personality Disorder. My sister was also bitten around two weeks ago and recovered without the cure but she has developed Attention Deficit Disorder." Courtney was speaking very professionally, something I'd never heard her do before.

"What's your location and how many of you are there? We're sending out a helicopter to pick you up now." Austin asked.

"18 Dantzic Street and there's..." Courtney trailed off as she counted everyone in the room.

"Are we gonna count Jack, Alex, Zack, Rian and Megan?" She asked us all.

"It'd be kinda rude not to." I shrugged.

"Right, there's 21 of us." Courtney sighed.

"I'm sending four helicopters, make sure you bring this cure with you. I want to speak with you, your sister, whoever made this cure and the guy you cured." Austin concluded.

"Okay, thank you." Courtney grinned as she hung up.

"I said it'd f*cking work!" Clarity cheered and jumped around the room.

"Go get the others." Ashton chuckled.

She practically skipped out of the room, a huge smile present on her face.

Vic, Mike, Gabe, Justin and Courtney went into Jack's room which left Ashton and me in the living room. Just us. Alone.

"So..." Ashton began, "Are we gonna talk about last night and the other day?" 

"Well, what's there to talk about?" I scratched the back of my neck awkwardly.

"I mean, I think it's obvious that I have feelings for you and I just wanted to know if you felt the same way." Ashton smiled as he looked over at me.

"I do, I really do." I agreed, feeling my cheeks heat up.

"Perfect." Ashton smirked.

He leaned over and pressed his lips against mine. I smiled slightly against his lips and began to kiss back. He ran his tongue along my bottom lip, asking for entrance which I gladly gave him.

I wrapped my arms around his neck as he placed his hands on my hips. He pulled me closer as our tongues fought for dominance. I ran my hands up through his blonde hair.

“The guys are in the room next door.” I pulled away as he ran his hands up under my shirt.

“We’ll just have to be extra quiet then won’t we?” Ashton smirked.

I winked at him and brought our mouths back together but quickly pulled away when a door slammed open.

“Yeah so this guy called Austin rang me and he sounded super hot by the way. Anyway so they’re sending like four helicopters and- oh my God.” Courtney stopped talking as she walked into the living room.

I was led on the floor with my shirt raised up exposing my shirt and Ashton hovering over me.

“Jesus Christ, I am so sorry. It must be really bad seeing your sister getting loads of action and you not getting any. Wow, I will give you guys a damn room.” She covered her eyes as she walked out the room.

She began to shut the door behind her whilst saying, “The room is all yours, have it, like it, love it.”

Ashton turned his head to look down at me again and we both blushed and burst out laughing at the same time.

 

* * *

 

COURTNEY’S POV::

“F*cking hell.” I swore under my breath as I pulled my jacket tighter around me.  
The FBI Director, Austin, had called me again and requested I stood on the roof of the apartment building and waited for the helicopters to arrive.

I was currently just stood there in the cold, kicking a pebble around that I had found up there to entertain me. I honestly didn’t see why this was necessary; we would hear the helicopters approaching from the apartment anyway.

I decided to make myself as comfortable as possible on the hard concrete by sitting down on one of the jackets I’d brought up with me.

I was sat for around five minutes when I began to hear helicopter blades whirring behind me. I turned around to see four helicopters behind me, approaching the building in the formation of an arrow.


	13. so blame it on my a.d.d baby

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so there's like loads of sex in this. like the whole concept of this chapter is sex between like 5 people so yah warning if you don't like that stuff then fuck off. also i'm aware that it takes like 13 hours to get from manchester to hollywood but just pretend for the sake of the book that it's shorter

We were all sat in the living room, just talking about random things when Courtney burst into the room.

"They're here." She panted.

All of us rushed around, grabbing baseball bats and shovels and anything else we might need. Ashton grabbed the jar that he had put the cure in and we all hurriedly made our way out of the apartment and up to the roof.

When we got up there we saw four helicopters waiting for us along with a tall man with short dark brown hair and tanned skin. He had colourful tattoos trailing down his arms and the sides of his neck and insanely long legs.

Courtney walked up to him and said, "I'm Courtney and you must be Austin?"

"That's me. We're gonna have five of you in three helicopters and then six in one of them, I'd like you to come with me along with your sister, the man who was bitten and the man who created the cure." Austin said.

"We need one more person then. Who wants to come with us?" Courtney turned around to look at all of us.

"I will." Mike stepped forward and raised his hand.

"Alright, the rest of you can sort yourselves out I guess." Courtney smiled before following Austin as he led us over to one of the helicopters.

There were six seats in there along with the pilot's seat and another passenger one up front. I slid into the back with Ashton and Jack whilst Courtney got into the front row of the seats in the middle of Mike and Austin.

There was a man sat in the extra passenger seat with ginger hair and a few tattoos on his arms and one on his neck. The driver next to him had black hair that came down to around just above his jaw and was shaved on the left side and stubble around his chin and jaw of the same colour.

Our helicopter was the first one to begin flying away, closely followed by the other three. I took one last look back to the country that I'd spent my whole life in and I could honestly say I didn't think I'd ever see it so destroyed. From up here I could see everything, the burning buildings and zombies moving around slowly.

I could even see some things moving very quickly which I assumed to be humans running. They must've seen the helicopters and I finally realised how lucky we were to be getting out of this alive.

 

* * *

 

"Luke, they wanna talk to you now." Jack smiled at me as he walked out of the office room he'd been in before.

They wanted to question us individually to find out about what we'd seen and how the cure had been created and whatnot. They'd already questioned Ashton and Jack so now it was my turn.

I stood up from my seat opposite Courtney and walked into the room. Austin and the ginger guy from earlier were sat at a dark mahogany desk with lots of papers and two laptops on it.

The walls were a dark purple and the floor was a black carpet. There were large bookcases covering most of the walls, the exception being the wall behind the two men which was just a large window.

I sat down in the seat opposite them and sent them a small smile.

"Alright, this is the Assistant Director Alan." Austin gestured to the ginger guy.

Alan leaned forward in his seat and stuck his hand out for me to shake.

I shook his hand and said, "Hi, I'm Luke."

"Nice to meet you." He let go of my hand and sat back in his seat.

"Can you tell us about when you got bitten?" Austin asked, picking up a pen and getting ready to write things down on a piece of paper that already had lots of scribbled notes on it.

"We went outside to get a zombie for Ashton to do tests on and I wasn't paying too much attention to what was going on because I was so damn bored out there. All of a sudden there's just a sharp pain in my neck and I can feel blood trickling down my chest. I screamed and everyone else heard me then and they came rushing out. At that time it was just me, Ashton, Courtney, Michael, Calum and Rosa so obviously we gained a lot of people over two weeks." I explained.

"How did the bite get cared for?"Alan asked.

"Ashton cleaned it out with something, I guess it might've been salt water or saline or something like that and gave me some morphine. They took me upstairs into this room that was kinda like a hospital room and hooked me up to an IV that had morphine in so that I could just press a button when I needed more and it'd give it to me. I was out for around a week I think and when I woke up the bite was gone, I just have this long ass scar on my neck now." I moved my hair and leaned my head to the side so I could show them the scar that I had on my neck.

"So, Ashton's already told us a little about this cure, can you tell us anything else about it?" Austin smiled.

"Um, all I know was that it was a mix of my blood which is O negative I think and ecstasy." I shrugged.

"Why ecstasy?" Alan frowned.

"Tony heard a rumour that class A drugs could slow the virus down so that you wouldn't turn for around a week if you kept them high enough." I explained.

"Right, when did you find your sister?" Austin asked.

"We went out the day I woke up to a supermarket to get some stuff and we found her with Alex, the other Jack, Rian and Zack. So we decided there was strength in numbers." I said.

"Okay, that's all we needed to ask." Austin smiled.

"Could you tell Courtney to come in?" Alan smirked.

I was honestly a bit worried when Alan smirked like that. I had no idea why they both seemed so happy about questioning Courtney and I really don't think I wanted to know.

 

* * *

Judging by the moans and groans coming out of that office right now I think I've figured out why Austin and Alan were so happy about seeing Courtney.

She'd been in there for at least half an hour now and the moans just weren't letting up. If anything they were getting louder and closer to screams of the two guys' names.

I was genuinely thinking about going on a mission to locate some ear plugs to block out the sounds when Ashton came up and sat next to me.

"Wanna get away from that?" He asked, chuckling as I grimaced when another moan came out from the room.

I nodded eagerly, standing up and speed-walking away from the room, Ashton right behind me.

"Right, what should we do then? Unless you wanna stand here looking like plebs until someone comes to talk to us?" I raised an eyebrow.

"I was thinking that we could finish what we started earlier." He smirked.

"Oh." I whispered, his face now around an inch away from mine.

He placed his hands either side of my head on the wall I was now leaning on and leaned his head closer until our lips met.

He slipped his tongue into my mouth and ran it along the underside of mine. I brought my hands up to his hair and tangled my fingers in it. I tried to pull him closer to me and smiled slightly against his lips when he stepped closer so that our chests were now touching.

I frowned slightly when he pulled away, looking around us. He smiled slightly when his eyes landed on a door a little down the hall from us. He grabbed my hand and pulled me with him when he walked towards the door. God must've been on our side today because the door was open and no one was in there.

Ashton shut the door behind us, locking it before pushing me up against the door. I pulled his head to mine and brought our lips together again. His hands grazed over my ass and went down to my thighs, pulling upwards slightly. I got the hint and jumped, wrapping my legs around his waist.

He kept my body tightly against the door with his chest when he began grinding his hips into my crotch. I opened my mouth to let out a soft moan as he trailed kissed down my neck before turning around and walking us over to the desk that sat in the middle of the office.

Ashton sat me down on the desk and stood between my legs. He began sucking and nibbling on my neck and running his hands up underneath my shirt before pulling away to take it off completely.

“I don’t have a condom.” He murmured.

“I really don’t give a shit.” I retorted.

“I don’t have lube either.” He raised an eyebrow.  
“I really really don’t give a shit.” I sighed, “I can take it.”

Ashton smirked and brought our lips back together. His hands went to my jeans, quickly unbuttoning them and trying to pull them off. I stood up to help him and sat back down on the edge of the desk when he successfully pulled my jeans off along with my boxers.

He spat in his hand and grabbed hold of my cock, stroking it painfully slowly. I whined slightly and he chuckled before speeding up his movement and pressing kisses against my neck.

He sucked a hickey on my neck at the base before sinking down to his knees. He winked at me before pressing a kiss to the tip of my cock.

“Ashton, I swear to fucking God if you don’t- Oh.” I was cut off by my own moan when he took my whole length into his mouth.

Every time he came up he swirled his tongue around my tip before sinking back down to the point where his nose was touching my abdomen. I placed my hand behind me to balance myself on the desk whilst my other hand tangled itself in his blonde hair.

I could feel myself getting closer and closer to the edge and I hesitantly pulled his hair, making him pull off of me.

He quickly stood back up and pressed his lips to mine as my hands went to his jeans, hurriedly unbuttoning them with shaking hands. I pulled his jeans down along with his boxers.

He stepped out of them and put his hands on my hips, pulling me closer to the edge of the desk so he could grind his hips into mine. 

“Lay back and spread your legs.” He murmured into my ear.

I led back on the desk and spread my legs as wide as I could. Ashton sucked three fingers into his mouth, coating them in his spit. He leant over and pressed kisses to my neck and chest as he pushed one of his fingers inside me.

I winced at the slight burn but moaned in pleasure when he began nibbling at my neck again. He let me get used to the feeling before moving his finger and adding another one. He began scissoring his fingers inside of me; curling them and making them brush against my prostate.

As he added his third finger I felt precum beginning to drip from my throbbing cock onto my stomach. 

“Ashton please.” I whined.

He chuckled before pulling his fingers out of me, leaving me clenching around nothing. He spat in his hand a few times before rubbing it over his cock, placing his tip in by my entrance.

He slowly pushed inside of me until he bottomed out, staying there for a few moments so I could get used to the feeling. When I said I was okay, he started to move. 

Moans began to pour out of my mouth as he hit my prostate with every thrust. He gripped my hips so tightly that I knew I would have bruises the next morning.

“Harder, Ashton, please.” I begged.

He leant over me and pressed his lips to mine, thrusting into me harder. The grip he had on my hips tightened and he was pulling me to him with every thrust he made. 

I moaned into his mouth as he began thrusting faster, bringing my hands up to grip his hair. I felt a familiar warmth begin to pool in my stomach. I dug my blunt nails into his back as I let out a moan that a porn star would be proud of.

“Ashton, touch me please.” I whimpered, listening to the low grunts that tumbled out of his mouth.

He brought his hand to my cock and began pumping me in time with his thrusts. I didn’t have time to warn him when thick, white ribbons of cum squirted onto both of our stomachs.

“Oh, fuck.” Ashton groaned as he came inside of me.

He stopped his movements and pressed his forehead against mine, looking into my eyes.

* * *

COURTNEY'S POV:: 

*so this is like when she only just walked into the room okey dokey? and if you aren’t here for the straight smut then you can skip this bit, it’s not overly important.*

"Hi, I'm Courtney." I smiled at the ginger guy when I walked into the room.

"I'm Alan, the assistant director." He smiled and introduced himself.

"Right, so this cure was made from your sister's blood and ecstasy, where did you get the ecstasy from?" Austin asked as I sat down in the chair opposite the two of them.

"My friend Justin, he deals it and he deals cocaine too. " I answered.

I knew that telling the FBI that one of my closest friends was a drug dealer wasn't a very good idea but I couldn't exactly lie to them either.

Austin smirked before saying, "We have a proposition for you and I don't want you to get offended by this but..."

I frowned as he paused mid sentence, "I'm sorry I don't understand."

Alan stood up and walked around to the back of my chair. He leaned over and rested his chin on my shoulders before bringing his hands down between my legs.

"Oh," I muttered before a smirk spread across my face, "that type of proposition."

Austin winked and said, "You're okay with this?"

I gasped when Alan began pressing kisses against my neck, nibbling gently at the skin there.

"Of course I am." I chuckled.

Austin stood up and walked towards me, leaning over in front of me and pressing his lips against mine.

The kiss wasn’t gentle or tender, it was hot and needy. He wasted no time in forcing his tongue into my mouth and I let out a moan when I felt Alan’s hand travel inside of my jeans.

Alan began biting harder at my neck, definitely leaving love bites in his path. Austin’s hands came to the front of my jeans and he unbuttoned them. I lifted my hips up off of the seat so he could pull them down. 

He pulled away from the kiss to throw my jeans somewhere and walk back over to the desk. I turned my head to the side and connected my lips with Alan’s as he slipped a finger inside of me. He pushed another finger in and began curling them, causing me to moan into his mouth.

I heard Austin walking back over and say something to Alan. Alan pulled his fingers out of me and moved away from me, making me whine slightly. Austin grabbed my shirt and lifted it up over my head, leaving me in just my underwear with the two of them fully dressed.

Alan came back behind me and put his hands behind me on the chair, undoing the clasp on my bra. I pulled the straps off my shoulders and let it drop to the floor. 

Austin knelt down in front of me and pressed his lips against mine again, bringing his hands up to play with my nipples. He brought his mouth down to my left nipple, his tongue playing with the piercing I had in it. 

“Fuck, Austin.” I moaned, tangling one hand in his hair.

I heard moans from behind me and I looked over my shoulder to see Alan fingering himself with one hand and tugging on his cock with the other. I let out a moan at the sight and threw my head back, closing my eyes.

Austin pulled away and I could sense movement behind me, I opened my eyes to see them both making their way towards the desk. Alan gestured for me to come over.  
He placed his hands on my hips and pulled me to him, crashing our lips together. He slipped his tongue into my mouth and slid his hands down the back of my pants, grabbing my ass.

“Come here.” I heard Austin say.

I pulled away to see Austin sat on the desk, naked. Alan smirked and climbed on top of him, putting his knees either side of Austin’s hips.

Alan whispered into my ear, “Sit on his face, facing me.” 

I smirked, pulling my pants down my legs before I climbed onto the desk too. I sank down onto Austin’s face, putting my hands on his chest to balance myself.

I watched Alan position Austin’s cock at his entrance, sinking down on him. I let out a moan as Austin’s tongue slipped inside of me and he brought his hands up to hold onto Alan’s hips.

Alan began to bounce up and down as I grinded my hips on Austin’s face, moans pouring out of our mouths. I drug my nails up his chest as he brought his hand up and slipped two fingers inside me beside his tongue.

Alan’s hand came down to tug on his cock and his other hand came to the back of my head, tangling it in my hair and pulling me forward. We both leaned forward and connected our lips. 

I slipped my tongue into his mouth and brought up one of my hands to hold onto his head. The kiss was quick and sloppy, our teeth clashing constantly.

I pulled away to let out a moan as Austin curled his fingers inside me.

“Fuck, I’m so close.” Alan groaned.

I slapped his arm to get him to move his hand. I took hold of his cock and pumped it in time with his bounces, running my thumb over his tip.

I clenched my thighs when Austin added another finger, quickly pumping them in and out of me alongside his tongue.

There was no warning when Alan came, white cum covering Austin’s stomach and my hand. Alan kept bouncing on Austin, riding himself through his high as I tensed up, my orgasm rippling through my body.

“Oh fuck.” I practically screamed and dug my nails into his chest.

I continued grinding myself against Austin’s face when he stilled, gripping onto Alan’s hip with his free hand. 

We were all coming down from our highs when the door swung open and someone walked in.

“Yo, boss, I need to file- holy shit, Courtney?!”


	14. sail!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so i haven't updated in forever. sorry about that, but i started writing other things (i like always start new books before i finish other ones, whoops) there's actually only 3 chapters left after this. maybe with an epilogue idk, the last chapter is kinda like an epilogue so i'm not sure yet. so i'm gonna finish this and hopefully all my other ongoing books and then i'll be able to start some new ones that i've got plans for :D
> 
> also the playlist for this book is almost finished too so i'll post the link to that on 8tracks soon!

COURTNEY'S POV::

"Holy sh*t, Jesse?!" I yelped, grabbing my shirt from the floor and trying to cover myself with it.

"Didn't think I'd be meeting you again like this." The ginger man chuckled.

"Um, yeah." I laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of my neck.

"Uh, I just came in to say that this report on the Scotland outbreak is finished." Jesse lifted a folder into the air.

Austin, who was now fully dressed, came forward to take the folder from Jesse, quite forcefully if you ask me.

I rushed round, collecting my clothes and hurriedly putting them back on before attempting to sort out my hair. I coughed sheepishly as I brushed passed Jesse when I walked out of the door before shutting it behind me and speed walking away.

 

* * *

 

I was walking around trying to find one of the bedrooms they had on the upper floors. They told us that we could pick whichever one we wanted to stay in until this epidemic was sorted out. They hadn't done a very good job of explaining where there were though, I'd been wandering around this floor for around twenty minutes and I haven't came across one bedroom.

I turned down into a hallway which I hadn't been down yet and was around halfway down when someone grabbed onto my wrist and pulled me into a room.

I was slammed up against a now shut door and I finally could see who it was. It was Mike. He was inches away from my face and he was damn intimidating. I was short so practically everyone was taller than me but right now the way he towered over me sent a shiver down my spine.

On the bright side of things however, I found the bedrooms as he had pulled me into one. 

"I need to talk to you." Mike finally spoke up.

"Talk to me then." I retorted, only just stopping my voice from shaking.

He didn't though. He just stood there, glaring into my eyes and breathing heavily, seething from anger. I was almost too scared to say something but I couldn't just stand there in an awkward, tense silence.

"Well?" I asked.

"I'd much rather show you." 

Before I could ask him what he meant he pressed our lips together in a sloppy, passionate kiss. I froze up for a moment, my eyes wide with shock before I slowly relaxed, closing my eyes and bringing my arms up around his neck.

* * *

LUKE’S POV::

“So like, what are we?” I heard Ashton ask but I just couldn’t concentrate on what he was saying.

I had a sandwich in front of me but I just wasn’t interested in it. The only thing that seemed appetising in the room was Ashton and it wasn’t a sexual kind of appetising either. I literally wanted to f*cking eat him.

“Luke?” Ashton asked, snapping his fingers in my face.  
Instead of giving an actual response I just groaned slightly and reached my arm out towards him. All of my movements seemed slow and delayed, as if the signals weren’t moving from my brain to my limbs at the correct speed.

“Luke, what the f*ck are you doing?” Ashton frowned, standing up.

I stood up slowly and began limping towards him, grabbing him by his shoulders and bringing him towards me. I started trying to bite his neck and he soon realised what was happening.

“What the f*ck?!” He shoved me away as a bunch of the lab workers rounded the corner.

“What’s going on here?” One of them asked.

“I don’t know, he’s just acting like a zombie and I don’t know why. He was bitten but he recovered, what the hell is going on?” Ashton panicked.

“The virus may have broken through his immune system, you said the cure was never administered on him right?” Another lab worker asked.

“Yeah, the cure was developed from his blood.” Ashton answered.

“Right, we’ve started developing a cure from the cure you provided. We’ll restrain him in the lab and try it on him.” 

* * *

COURTNEY’S POV::

“Oh fuck, Mike.” I whined, wrapping my arms around his neck as he pushed me harder against the wall.

I heard him grunting as he pressed his face into my neck and began nibbling on the skin there. I dug my nails into his muscular back and moaned as I felt him thrusting against that sweet spot that made me f*cking purr.

“Oh my God, I’m so f*cking close. Harder, please.” I begged.

“Sh*t, come for me babe.” Mike growled, lifting his head and pressing his forehead against mine.

My whole body tensed and I tightened my legs around his waist as a familiar heat began to pool in my stomach. I threw my head back and arched my back as I felt myself finally be pushed over the edge.

I gripped onto Mike’s bicep as his thrusts became increasingly sloppier until he stilled inside me.

We both took a few deep breaths before I opened my mouth to speak but was cut off by a loud bang on the door.

“Yo, open the f*cking door.” I recognised Kellin’s voice as there were more bangs on the door.

Mike carefully set me on the ground before we both quickly scrambled round, pulling our clothes on.

I didn’t even bother to check if I looked alright before opening the door as Kellin hadn’t stopped hitting it for the past minute.

“Jesus, what the f*ck took you so long?” Kellin furrowed his eyebrows.

He didn’t even give me time to reply before he began speaking again, “Right so, basically Luke’s like turning into a zombie and they’re gonna try and give him this new cure they’ve been developing whilst they interviewed us. Also, you really do scream as loud as Justin said you did, like damn tone it down. You could tear a vocal chord.” 

I was left standing with my jaw dropped as he quickly walked off. When I finally came to my senses I ran out of the room and towards where I thought the lab was.

I burst through the large white door and looked around. Ashton was there along with Kellin and Justin and they were stood behind a large wall of glass.

Behind the wall, Luke was sat in a chair, strapped down with people in white coats rushing around him.

“What the f*ck is going on?” I asked.

“I was talking to him earlier and he just started like groaning and reaching out for me and then he tried to bite my neck. So I pushed him off me and then these guys walked past and were like-“ Ashton began explaining before I cut him off.

“Yeah, I didn’t ask for a damn essay I just wanna know what the hell they’re trying to do to him!” I grabbed the collar of Ashton’s shirt and stood up on my toes to yell in his face.

“C, calm down alright? These scientists have been trained for this stuff, Luke will be fine.” Justin placed a hand on my shoulder.

I heard the white door open behind me and looked over my shoulder to see Mike walk in with Vic, Jaime, Tony and Clarity behind him. 

We stood there for what seemed like hours as the scientists injected things into Luke’s arms. As they injected a dark red liquid into his arm his eyes slowly drooped closed and he stopped struggling against his restraints.

“What’s going on? Is he okay?!” Clarity gasped, her voice shaking with panic.

“He’s slipped into a coma.” One of the scientists looked at me through the glass wall.


End file.
